{"id":161,"date":"2013-11-12T21:41:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T20:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.worldculturejournal.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2013-11-13T11:02:24","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T10:02:24","slug":"environment-rwandas-ban-on-plastic-bags-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/2013\/11\/environment-rwandas-ban-on-plastic-bags-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment: Rwanda\u00b4s ban on plastic bags (revisited)"},"content":{"rendered":"

fortunately, this image does not exist anymore in Rwanda<\/em>…
\n\"plasticbags460\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Even though it has been widely reported (again) in the first half of 2013, it still is not common knowledge, that the country Rwanda has successfully banished the use of plastic bags. The law went already in effect in 2008 and was preceded by nationwide cleaning-up activities as the BBC reported in 2006<\/a>, making Rwanda today the most environment-conscious country in Africa with the “cleanest capital”.<\/p>\n

The Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA)<\/strong> states on their website<\/a> only briefly, that “Rwanda with a vision to maintain a clean, healthy and wealthy environment has by law banned the use of non biodegradable plastic bags.” and that these measures serve the goal of sustainable development.
\nThis was the result of year-long efforts of course – particularly by its director general, Dr. Rose Mukankomje. In 2011 she told the Canadian “The Dominion”<\/a>: \u201cIn 2004, the Ministry of the Environment began to conduct studies on the use of plastic bags in Rwanda,\u201d … \u201cAt that time people had started to see plastic invading everywhere\u2014black, yellow, red colored bags\u2014causing even visual pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding the importance of environment friendly policies and \u00a0including the population in the efforts certainly have helped to bring the initiative to life. But what else has helped in this success story? A steady and determined government? the widespread wish for healing and productive, positive change after the genocide of 1994?<\/p>\n

In February 2013, Tom Carver reasoned in his article “The country without plastic bags<\/a>“, that it may have also something to do with a general different mind set: “Certainly, Rwanda seems to me to occupy a different psychic space to other African countries, much closer to the German mindset of hard work, self-discipline, orderliness. Perhaps it is no coincidence that both countries have experienced similar depths of genocidal depravity and remarkable economic success subsequently.”<\/p>\n

Whatever the reasons, the good news of environment friendly development in a “poor country” deserves more attention. For an even more in-depth analysis watch the news report (12 min video) from April 2013 by France24: “Rwanda\u00b4s platic bag-free utopia<\/a>“. In this short 12min documentary video it is also explained, that using, utilizing or even trafficking plastic bags is now against the law and did already lead to prison sentences for “plastic smugglers”.<\/p>\n

#Environment #PlasticBags #Rwanda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

fortunately, this image does not exist anymore in Rwanda… \u00a0 Even though it has been widely reported (again) in the first half of 2013, it still is not common knowledge, that the country Rwanda has successfully banished the use of plastic bags. The law went already in effect in 2008 and was preceded by nationwide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,47],"tags":[53,59,49,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boell.com\/worldculturejournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}