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By Clementine Nyirangaruye
The Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) has encouraged the participants of Kigali Car Free Day to refuse single use plastic items and throw them away. It is part of the campaign against plastic pollution caused by plastic items and REMA explained how plastic materials harm the environment.
This was asked to the participants of Kigali Car Free Day with the theme: Participate in measures against pollution from plastic materials, especially disposable ones. In his address to the participants of Kigali Car Free Day, the Minister of Environment, Dr. Jeanne D’Arc Mujawamaliya urged people to reject single-use plastic utensils and throw them away at restaurants and markets.
She said: “At this time, the world is threatened by the increase in pollution caused by the waste of plastic materials, all of us as Rwandans are determined to reject single-use plastic materials and throw them away.”
She continued to ask the participants of Kigali Car Free Day to recycle the tools they already have and use them for shopping and to reject the tools that contain plastic and plastic bottles that are used once and are thrown away.
She said: “If they give you a plastic bottle at a restaurant, refuse it. If you need something to use when shopping, maybe you can recycle what you have. You can take an old towel and remove the cloth and sew a shopping bag, those who have a car, you can carry a bucket in the car. If you’re going shopping, you don’t need to put it in a bag.”
On the other hand, regarding plastic bottles and straws coming from outside the country, measures have been taken that include high taxes through a law that is in the process of being approved, according to Juliet Kabera, Director General of REMA.
She said: “They have imposed high taxes and imported goods are expensive. The law that has been prepared is in the process of being approved, it is a law that imposes high taxes on imported products and cooperatives of people in the business of recycling will receive that money from the FONERWA fund.”
How plastic materials harm the environment
Musabyejezu Marie Salvatrice, an employee of Go Green and Store Africa Action, which is responsible for environmental protection and combating the effects of climate change, one of Kigali Car Free Day participants explains how plastic materials harm the environment.
She said: “Plastic materials are harmful to the environment first when you use them, they don’t decompose. So something that doesn’t decompose continues to harm the ecosystem for many years, more than thousands of years, that’s why we oppose the use of plastic.”
During the week dedicated to the environment, which started on May 27, 2023 and will end on June 5, 2023, which will be celebrated as the International Day of the Environment, various activities were carried out, including asking the local authorities to follow appropriate procedures that help the public to implement the regulations and measures related to combating plastic pollution.
