Tanzania leads the fight against plastic | Letters
Re your article about "Plastic City" on the outskirts of the Philippine capital of Manila (The villagers who are forced to live with the world's waste, 9 September), we have just returned from Tabora town in Tanzania, having worked as volunteers for 10-week periods over the past 20 years. Our final trip revealed an amazing and extraordinary fact that Tanzania has recently banned all plastic bags, with not a black plastic bag to be seen in the streets, which hitherto was a common sight in the ditches, on the roads and in fact everywhere. These black bags were given to you in the market and from small roadside stalls selling fruit and veg, clothes and much more.
In May this year Tanzania passed a law making the use of plastic bags an offence with a hefty fine or imprisonment. The law was implemented within a month, ie on 1 June, and the effect was immediate, with all stalls and shops using a new paper-based bag in varying sizes and colours.
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