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Ivan Zhakata Herald Correspondent

The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has said it is phasing out plastic carrier bags at the end of December next year to help protect the environment from their effects when discarded.

The phasing out of the plastics was announced in a letter written to retailers by EMA last week.

The banning of the plastic carrier bags will affect mainly retailers, especially supermarkets, that have been relying on them for long.

In light of the pending ban on plastics, some organisations like the Killer Zivhu Foundation have come up with alternatives that can replace the plastic carrier bags.

The foundation is distributing non-woven packaging to retailers and vendors across the country as part of the campaign to shift from plastic packaging to other means not hazardous to the environment.

The Killer Zivhu Foundation on Friday last week distributed more than 2 500 cloth carrier bags to vendors at Chikwanha Vegetable Market in Chitungwiza for packaging of various products.

The foundation’s founder and philanthropist Mr Killer Zivhu said they were heeding the call of going green and complementing the Government’s efforts on protecting the environment.

“We have come up with these cloth carrier bags to support the Government’s efforts to create smart cities,” he said. “Plastic is not bio degradable and will be on the ground for years, causing damage to the environment.

“These cloth carrier bags are bio degradable and cause no harm to the environment. As a Foundation we have a capacity to produce one million cloth carrier bags in a week and we have the capacity to print 250 000 of these in a day.”

Mr Zivhu encouraging traders, vendors and retailers to adopt the new bio degradable packaging to create a safer environment.

EMA’s director of Environmental Management Services Mr Steady Kangata said there was need to reduce the use plastics.

“We are encouraging the retailers to adopt alternative packaging because plastic is a danger to the environment,” he said.

“We have two types of packaging, which is carrier packaging and carrier barrier packaging.

“The difference between the two is that carrier packaging is what we call “paper bags” which are used by people to carry their groceries and carrier barrier paper bags are plastics used to protect food from contamination.”

Mr Kangata said they were encouraging retailers to consider alternative non plastic carrier bags which are environmentally friendly.

“Plastic carrier bags are set to be phased out by the end of December 2022,” he said. “We appreciate efforts by some retailers who have already started promoting alternative bags. A green economy is the way to go and your cooperation in this regard is greatly appreciated.”

Plastic bags are dumped indiscriminately into landfills worldwide that occupy tonnes of hectares of land and emit dangerous methane and carbon dioxide gases, as well as highly toxic leachates from the landfills during their decomposition stage.

The major impact of plastic bags on the environment is that they take many years to decompose.