In a further move to rid Burma of non-recyclable plastic bags, the government in Naypyidaw has ordered around 100 plastics factories to stop producing them, according to sources in Rangoon.
Two factory owners in Burma’s largest city told The Irrawaddy an instruction had come from Rangoon’s divisional commander, Brig-Gen Win Myint, ordering production of the bags to cease from the end of October.
A ban on the production of non-recyclable plastic bags was enforced in Mandalay in June, with apparent success. A similar ban also applies in the country’s new capital, Naypyidaw.
Sources said the authorities had threatened to cut power to factories which failed to comply with Win Myint’s order.
A leading Burmese environmentalist, U Ohn, general secretary of the Rangoon-based Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association, welcomed the ban and said it would benefit the country. The authorities should have drawn up plans for a substitute for the plastic bags, however, he said.
Some entrepreneurs remain skeptical about the ban, saying it will hit businesses and put some people out of work.
Fifteen years ago, the Burmese regime adopted an environmental policy designed to protect the country’s natural resources. Many environmentalists complain the policy has not been implemented efficiently.
“If they really want to achieve their plan, they need to set up a program on TV which is about the environment and they need to go out among the people and educate them about the environment,” said U Ohn.
A report published last year by the Asia Development Bank’s Environmental Operations Center said Burma is one of several countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion where “there is a general lack of awareness and understanding” of environmental issues.
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