# Plastic-bags

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/plastic-bags/
- Published: 2020-08-27T10:31:20+02:00
- Author: dearSA

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### The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries has invited members of the public to comment on the intention to amend the Environment Conservation Act Plastic Carrier Bags and Plastic Flat Bags Regulations.

The amendments do NOT ban plastic bags but state that plastic carrier bags and plastic
flat bags must be made from a minimum of 50% post-consumer recyclate from 1 January
2023, 75% of recycled materials from 2025 and must comprise 100% post-consumer recyclate
from 2027.

### **7496**** **participants (closed 7 September).

[view a report of the public participation ](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20190927/Plastic-bags-report-1-1.pdf)

[download a PDF of the public comments (2.2mb) ](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20190933/plastic-bags-redact-s.pdf)

![DearSA-plastic-bags](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/
08/20190943/DearSA-plastic-bags.jpg "DearSA-plastic-bags")

![DEAR-SOUTH-AfFRICA](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/
02/08135845/DEAR-SOUTH-AfFRICA.png "DEAR-SOUTH-AfFRICA")

[view a summary and info here ](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/plastic-bags/summary)

## Have your say – shape this policy.

**Error:** Contact form not found.

### DOWNLOAD DOCUMENTS

 * [Draft regulations and notice](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/20190943/nema_plasticbagregulationsamendment_43601gon869s.pdf)(
   869 of gazette 43601)
 * [UN document on single-use plastics](https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25496/singleUsePlastic_sustainability.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)
 * [Research paper on plastic waste inputs from land to ocean](https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_AMERICANA/Science-2015-Jambeck-768-71__2_.pdf)

### IN THE MEDIA

 * BizCommunity – [Plastic Bag Regulations](https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/717/207515.html)
 * Western Cape Gov – [Plastic Pollution](https://www.westerncape.gov.za/general-publication/plastic-pollution)

### Comment from The Civil Society Plastic & Waste Initiative

**Demand that South Africa bans Plastic Bags**
 South Africans should reject the
government’s feeble new plastic bag rules and call for a complete ban of these easily
replaceable, single-use items that bring short-term convenience at the cost of huge
long-term environmental harm.

A seven-year timeline for plastic bags to be made from 100% recycled material is
far too weak. Instead, we need legislation that will have a real and immediate impact.

South Africans use around 8 billion plastic shopping bags per year, despite a plastic
carrier bag levy introduced in 2003, and large numbers of these bags are indiscriminately
dumped.

The equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic enters our oceans every minute and
by 2050, scientific research shows that there will be more plastic by weight in 
the ocean than fish. Around ten million bags are used every minute worldwide – and
around half are used just once before being thrown away. Every plastic bag is used
for only 15 minutes on average – but it can take up to 500 years to decompose. In
fact, all plastic remains in the environment forever, in the form of microplastics
that are invisible to the human eye.

Plastic is killing wildlife, harming our oceans, clogging up rivers and sewers, 
costing South Africa millions in municipal waste management, destroying people’s
livelihoods, infiltrating the human food chain and causing cancers and birth defects.
Scientists have found plastic in tap water and even in salt and beer.

It pollutes our water resources and contributes to climate change throughout its
entire lifecycle, from cradle to grave, due to fossil fuel extraction and transport,
plastic refining and manufacturing, thereby undermining our constitutional right
to an environment that isn’t harmful to our health or well-being.

Plastic debris not only results in high cleaning-up costs but also brings huge losses
for the tourism, fisheries and shipping sectors, which will certainly undermine 
our post-Covid economic recovery.

Africa is leading the way globally in the fight against plastic pollution as 35 
out of 54 states have already banned plastic bags.

South Africa should join them by immediately prohibiting single-use plastic bags
being sold or freely offered at point of sale and then phasing them out. By 1 January
2023, they should have been completely replaced with long-life carrier bags made
from 100% recycled materials.

More than [13,000 South Africans](https://www.vuma.earth/petitions/ban-throwaway-plastics)
have called for single-use carrier bags to be banned. Join them by saying a firm“
No!” to the government’s greenwash proposal.

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