The Department of Environmental Affairs is in talks with industry representatives to phase out or ban single-use plastic products entirely. This would be a significant move made by South Africa, in the on-going plastic crisis.
Mark Gordon, the department’s deputy director-general for chemical and waste management told Businesstech that products like straws, stirrers, earbuds, table cups, tableware and polystyrene packaging play a significant role in marine pollution.
“We are prioritising this. We have identified the priority products that we need to address and we are doing this in a matrix where we look at these products – what are the compostable alternative availability, the cost of the alternative, the market readiness in terms of availability in South Africa – and we are really quantifying every aspect of this to look at its market readiness”. says Gordon.
Read tips for living with less plastic.
According to Gordon, the department has also introduced various consumer awareness campaigns that aims to encourage people to refuse single-use plastic straws. The department is still in ‘consultation’ with industry representatives, as well as retailers and consumer groups, on how to ban or phase out single-use products.
A focus is also on the possible alternative replacements that can be introduced ahead of the plastic-straw ban.
If you are looking for a way to get rid of single-use plastic in your home, consider the art of EcoBricking. Single-use items cannot be broken down or recycled and end up in overflowing landfills, which are then blown into the ocean.
EcoBricking is an easy, hassle-free, up-cycling method to remove single-use plastics from your home. Read about EcoBricking here.
Image source: Unsplash
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