Plastic pollution a cause for concern

Thembekile Ntuliki, Sunday News Reporter

THE Environmental Management Agency has stepped up efforts to manage plastic products after revelations that the country has this year so far imported 394 million kg of plastic.

 

Of the imported plastic, only 10 percent is being recycled, while the rest is a major source of pollution.

In an interview during the just ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo, EMA senior environmental education and public officer Mr Lloyd Munetsi said there must be a balance on the economic, social and environmental impact of plastic.

“We are zeroing in on plastic pollution, this is the main centre of our theme, we are enhancing green values.

We are advocating against the traditional linier economy where things are manufactured, used and disposed of.

“We are saying people have industrial symbiosis where waste that is produced from an industry is used as raw material in another industry, so those are the value chains that we are enhancing as an agency.”

In an interview, a hazardous substances environmental expert Mr Irvine Nyaguwa said only 10 percent of the plastic is being recycled.

“We import a lot of plastic and that is the reason why we participate in projects that are being spearheaded by the international convention, this project is meant to strengthen Zimbabwe capacity to minimise and reduce plastic waste.

That is the main objective.

“This is all not happening in isolation, we have a lot of activities that are also being initiated globally that we are participating in but actively now, we are in the middle of that project, it focuses on four thematic areas, of key interest in the project is we want do develop a national inventory to know how much plastic do we consume and how much waste do we produce from plastic, how much is properly disposed of,” said Mr Nyaguwa.

EMA environmental education and publicity manager Ms Amukela Sidange said plastic was now being viewed as a hazardous material.

“Plastics are now actually viewed as hazardous substance and we are also saying as the agency we are concerned by the level of pollution in our own country because you realise that out of about 106 million tonnes we generate on an annual basis, 18 percent is plastic which is about 300 tonnes plastic, and for us to reach 300 tonnes it means more space has been filled.

Of late we have had clogging of storm drains.

“We have had the reports from farmers where livestock consumed plastic and they go on to die, there are a lot of impacts from this plastic pollution,” she said.