Officials in Zanzibar are making sure travellers leave no trace of their visits to the archipelago, after they began strictly enforcing a ban on single-use plastics.
Several airlines and tour operators have received notice of the ban from island authorities, who have begun including a warning in their quotes and booking confirmations.
The ban extends to any single-use plastic
packaging travellers may have in their luggage, including Ziploc bags used to
store liquids and gels for airport security screening, and any packaging from
food or snacks.
The semi-autonomous “spice islands” banned the import and distribution of plastic bags back in 2006 but have recently expanded the ban to all single-use plastics amid growing concern over damage to the archipelago’s fragile ecosystem.
The archipelago cannot succeed in its plastic reduction mission without the support of tourists as well as locals, said Sheha Mjaja, director general of the Zanzibar Environmental Management Authority (ZEMA) in an interview with Down to Earth.
Sensitising tourists is important as they are the biggest polluters in terms of buying and consuming plastic water bottles, fancy cocktails with straws, and tiny-bottled bathroom toiletries, Mjaja adds.
More than 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans every year, according to United Nations Environment Program (Unep), where it impacts marine life, fisheries and tourism.
About 80% of the garbage that ends up in the ocean is made of plastic, and costs marine ecosystems billions of rands in damage, Unep estimates.
A number of East African countries (including Kenya, Morocco, Mauritania, and Rwanda) have also banned plastics. It remains to be seen if these environmentally-friendly measures will spread to South Africa’s shores.