Tunisia is set to implement her ban on plastic bags. The North African country in February 2016 announced through her ministry of Environment her intention to ban the manufacturing, export and distribution of non-biodegradable plastic bags. The country uses an average of one billion plastic bags a year with less about eight hundred million of them not recycled.

Tunisia is looking to implement this proposal by 2017 and will be the first Arab country to do so.

Plastic bags are a major source of lingering pollution as they are not biodegradable and easily find their way to the sea and into the alimentary canal of our aquatic lives.  More often than not, we really do not need these plastic bags but just feel obliged to have them as part of the services we believe we had paid for. Also, it has been widely reported that by 2050, they will more plastic in our water bodies than fishes and this is a good step towards stopping that.

It is really great news for Africa that Tunisia is making this huge commitment towards environmental sustainability and I hope other countries feel challenged to follow suit. This will now likely lead to the production of bags with recycled materials or paper/pulp materials. If it must be produced using wood as the raw material, at least double of the used quantity should be replanted to ensure that deforestation does not creep in.

The announcement has naturally got business owners thriving on plastic bags annoyed but this is part of the sacrifice we all must make to save our planet.

Photo:  alaraby.co.uk