The Conservation and Environment Protection Authority and its stakeholders will be hosting World Environment Day celebrations at the Lae Botanic Gardens on Monday, June 5th.
This year’s campaign is #BeatPlasticPollution.
CEPA’s scientific officer, Shirley Mole, iterated that they are collaborating with their partners to come up with ways to mitigate plastic wastes in Lae.
“We know plastic is an issue in the industrial sectors and we are trying our best to promote the theme ‘Solutions to Plastic Pollution’.
“The other thing is we also have a regulation in place. It’s about the biodegradable plastic use regulation.
“It was implemented in 2011 and is in effect but the problem we have now is the enforcement bit where we try to get it out to the public and tell them that, the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags is banned now. So we are trying to use the World Environment Day as an opportunity.
“We figured that with Lae having 80 percent of the industrial sector there, we are targeting Lae to host and also launch the World Environment Day.
“Some of the permit holders we have, they say that they are bringing in the biodegradable bags, where we allow them to use. But the single use plastics, the ones where you go to the shops and they pack your things with, these are the ones that we are banning because it’s not good for the environment when you are burning it.
“These wastes, they still end up in the dump and they still burn it. This is the problem that we are facing now.”
Mole explained that the 2011 policy banned the importation, manufacture and use of non-biodegradable single use plastic shopping bags in PNG. The reason why plastic bags are still being used in shops is because CEPA is yet to strengthen laws with regard to distributors, who issue plastics to wholesalers or shops, who then pack customers’ items in them.
Plastic bags not only litter the land, they also end up in rivers and seas when conveyed by rainfall runoff, water flow and wind.