Pakistan EPA says situation is grim

January 22, 2007
Polythene bags an imminent threat to environment
Daily Times, Islamabad, Pakistan

Hanging from branches, flying in the air, stuck in corners and racing along vehicles, polythene bags can be seen everywhere nowadays. Thousands of plastic bags are thrown away everyday, which results in choked drains, bacterial germinations, water borne diseases and the spread of mosquitoes...

Bye-bye Sili-silis!

New plastic bags (sili-silis) law kicks into effect in Sri Lanka. It ends with "it's time to pull out your old cane baskets or invest in some handy cloth bags the next time you go shopping":

12/31/06
Wish you a sili-sili-free New Year
Nadia Fazlulhaq, Sunday-Times, Columbo, Sri Lanka

Go to a supermarket today and you will, no doubt, come home with more than half a dozen sili-sili bags containing your purchases. Tomorrow, though, it may be a different story as Sri Lanka takes the significant step of doing away with thin polythene in the New Year...

Viva La France!

Paris to Ban Non-Biodegradale Plastic Bags Next Year

10 December 2006
http://voanews.com/english/2006-12-10-voa10.cfm
By Lisa Bryant, Paris, France

The city of Paris has decided to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags in large stores as of 2007, in an effort to cut down on pollution. The City of Lights is hardly the first to tackle its plastic woes. From Paris, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA that from Ireland to South Africa, the throwaway bag is heading for the dustbin - of history...

Paris moves toward ban

France’s capital seeks early ban
on non-biodegradable plastic bags

27/11/2006
http://www.prw.com/homePBP_NADetail_UP.aspx?ID_Site=818&ID_Article=15735&mode=1&curpage=0
By David Vink, Paris, Plastics & Rubber Weekly, Croydon, UK

Paris aims to enforce ban before 2010.

As the Emballage packaging fair drew to a close on Friday last week, the Paris city hall issued a statement that it is launching a plan to “put an end to the distribution of plastic bags” from 2007...

Paying Indirect or Direct Costs?

In what is being called a radical move, the Kenyan government is trying to reduce plastic waste by increasing the thickness of bags and thus the cost:

November 30, 2006
Kenya: Plastic Shopping Bags to Cost More
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611300570.html
Jeff Otieno, The Nation, Nairobi

Shoppers will pay more for plastic bags come next year.
It is expected that the price of the bags will more than double, approximately from Sh1 to between Sh2.50 and Sh5. The extra cost will be transferred to consumers indirectly...

For a different take on this, here's something from Gathura's World, a blog from Nairobi. He makes a very good point:

November 30, 2006
NARC-otics in a Plastic Bag
http://gathara.blogspot.com/2006/11/narc-otics-in-plastic-bag.html

"Instead of asking shoppers to pay directly for the bags when and if they want them, the government has chosen to charge all consumers regardless of whether or not they make the environmentally sound decision to reject the bags. This is unlikely to result in fewer people asking for the bags at the supermarket counter. For that to happen, consumers who make environmentally foolish choices would need to bear the full cost of those choices, not share the burden with those who chose otherwise."