[SustainableTompkins] African nations ban plastic bags

[Thomas Shelley]

Dear Friends--Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda and other African nations have 
now passed laws banning or restricting the use of plastic grocery 
bags.   Their pressing concern in many areas was public sanitation.  Less 
than 10 percent of waste goes to land fills, the rest goes "out back" 
somewhere, distributed to the environment.  So environmental degradation 
has become a severe problem, leading to the ban on thin plastic bags.  See:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1130/p01s04-woaf.html

The links at the bottom of the article are well worth checking out as 
well.  It is interesting to note that in Taiwan not only have plastic bags 
been banned, but also plastic utensils and Styrofoam and plastic food 
containers.  This article states that in the few years that the plastics 
ban has been in effect, the Taiwanese waste burden has been reduced by 25 
percent!!   The article also notes that there was not a predicted major 
economic loss in the plastics business as exports of other products filled 
in for the loss of production of bags, utensils, etc.  [The economic loss 
will come later when Taiwan can no longer get oil for less than $500/barrel.]

So we all know the direction in which we need to move....  Have a wonderful 
weekend.   Tom

Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
tjs1 at cornell.edu
http://www.myspace.com/99319958
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