The Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change announces that the final date for total ban on sale of plastic products will be in November.
Minister Geoffrey Kama made this statement during the signing of an MOU on mangrove protection.
The government, under former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, passed a bill on ban of plastic manufacturing and sale in the country.
But so far only a handful of provincial governments and corporate bodies have observed this call.
However, although the implementation of the strategies is taking time, the Marape-Steven government will still pursue the plan of total ban on plastic bags.
The Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change, Geoffrey Kama, emphasized on this during the MoU signing of the Bootless Bay Mangrove Protection project at Mirigeda outside of Port Moresby on Friday, 09th of August.
“The bill was produced by former minister, Sir John Pundari, and it went through,” he stated. “We are yet to implement and cut off time will be November. It’s going to be a complete stop on plastic ban. We’ll have to look at other means of biodegradable of paper bags or bilums.
“We’ll use that to go shopping. Shops like Brian Bell have gone into paper bags already. I think they are doing it in Alotau and Namatanai too. So everybody must stop. November there’s going to be a complete stop.
“And if we say no to plastic bags, we’ll have to talk to the people who are selling plastic bags and people who are manufacturing plastic bags. But I just mentioned earlier that only 33 companies are selling plastic bags and three countries that are manufacturing in the country; we’ll have to give them notice to stop and that’s it.”
(Minister for ECCC, Geoffrey Kama)