Felix de Klein’s question, “Can South Africa afford the new bag law?” (June 20), deserves serious attention.
One should note that De Klein has a vested interest, not only as a consumer but also as a businessman who wants to sell a product of somewhat dubious worth. He makes a “degradable” plastic bag that “dries up like a leaf”. De Klein claims it decomposes more quickly than ordinary bags and would be a marvel for the environment.
He made representations to Parliament’s portfolio committee and to industry earlier this year, and has asked the government to delay implementing the regulations to give time to test his product.
Unfortunately, De Klein has so far failed to prove the worth of his product or to convince business to buy it.
In pushing the government to revisit the law, he spuriously engages in a discourse on the plastic bag regulations. He has backed his argument by referring to job losses, health hazards and economic growth. We are then asked to believe his comments are genuine concerns.
The so-called degradable plastic bags do not degrade completely to water and carbon dioxide, as De Klein claims. They degrade into tiny pieces of polyethylene, creating the “white dust” problem currently experienced in China.
We cannot afford to solve problems with other problems. Until proven technology that ensures these plastics successfully degrade is available, it would be irresponsible to distribute biodegradable bags on a large scale here.
De Klein casts asperions on the success of the plastic bag agreement. In fact, its implementation has been enormously successful, and the reduction in plastic bags from the waste stream is already significant.
The intrinsic value of plastic bags has increased because they are now backed by a responsible recycling initiative that was previously absent. Now that the real cost of plastic bags is evident, we can make informed choices about their use.
The issue of job losses in the industry is a serious one. In partnership with business and labour, the department is looking at all possible mechanisms to prevent them.
We must, however, realise that plastic bag extrusion and manufacture is not labour-intensive. The threatened jobs are made up three or four times over in the growing plastics recycling industry. We have created a non-profit company called “Buyisa-e-Bag” in partnership with business and labour, and allocated seed funding up front while the industry starts to collect levies. Through this, a number of jobs will be created, together with opportunities in the bigger recycling industry.
The plastic bags agreement has worked because South Africans have responded positively and because of the partnership between the government, business and labour in implementing it. This unique feature of the initiative seems to have been missed by De Klein in his ill-disguised effort to sell his product.
Crispian Olver is Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism