Salima District Council against thin plastics

Salima District Council is sensitising communities to the dangers of using single-use thin plastics in the district.

In an interview yesterday, the district’s environmental officer Samuel Chimowa said the campaign seeks to save the environment.

“We are telling communities that production and distribution of thin plastics of less than 60 microns is an offence,” he said.

Chimowa said thin plastics also affect aquatic life when they go into rivers and lakes.

“In Salima, we have Lake Malawi and some rivers which people depend on for fishing. So, let us not pollute the water,” he said.

The council is using a mobile van and radio programmes to reach out to people with messages on the ban on thin plastics.

Moffat Symon, a community member from Traditional Authority Khombedza, commended the council for the initiative.

“Thin plastics have littered my garden close to the main road along the Salima-Nkhotakota Road making it difficult for crop production,” he said.

Salima Civil Society Organisations Network chairperson Paul Duncan said the campaign will save the district from the consequences of thin plastics.

He said: “If you move around the town you will see that thin plastics are thrown everywhere.

“It’s high time we stopped using such plastics to save our environment.”

In 2015, government through the Department of Environmental Affairs banned thin plastics, saying they pose a threat to the environment due to their slow rate of decomposition.

However, plastic makers obtained an injunction against the ban, a development that led to delayed implementation of the same.

But last year, the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the ban on the use of thin plastics.