Non-biodegradable plastic bags were outlawed in 2008, leaving a vacuum in the packaging sector. Strangely, though, a handful of firms, mainly the cottage industry, are making paper bags. 

One could argue that unscrupulous individuals are taking advantage of this scarcity to smuggle the banned polythene paperbags into the country.

This situation has also forced traders to package customers’ consignment in ordinary papers, which are sometimes dirty, thus posing health risks since some of these papers have ink while others could have been picked from rubbish skips.

Oily food stuff such as sambusa, chapatti and dough nuts are commonly wrapped in such paper. But the sight of a sooty paperwrap containing such snacks is as retching as it is an infection risk.

That is one of the reasons traders still risk and use illicit plastic bags to package such commodities. Dealers admit that used paperwraps are not decent, but claim they use them as a last resort.

"If you buy a sambusa or chapatti worth Rwf100, it is costly for an ordinary dealer to wrap such commodity in a khaki envelope worth the same amount. So, we resort to cheaper envelopes made in used paper,” said a snack vendor in Gitega Sector, Nyarugenge District, who preferred anonymity.

"Clients are not comfortable with them but we have nothing to do.”

Paperbags cost between Rwf20 and Rwf100, but the majority of small business proprietors say they cannot afford them.

A foodstuff dealer at Kimisagara market said they use envelopes made from recycled papers because they are cheap (at between Rwf5 to Rwf10).

The two dealers said they would buy the appropriate packaging materials if they were affordable.

There is, however, some light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to efforts by Trade and Industry ministry, Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (Rema), the Ministry of Natural Resources, and Rwanda Standards Bureau (RSB) to woo more investors to set up factories that make eco-friendly, decent and affordable packaging materials.

Emmanuel Hategeka, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said they are getting promising responses, adding that encouraging firms to invest in biodegradable packaging materials was an ongoing exercise.

Remy Duhuze, in-charge of environmental sustainability and pollution control at Rema, said the authority gives technical support to firms that invest in eco-friendly alternative packaging materials that meet environmental sustainability specifications.

Other plastic alternative

Meanwhile, Hategeka said there are packaging materials called oxo biodegradable plastics allowed for some products such as beef and fresh cassava ground leaves, which cannot be packaged in paper envelopes.

"However, one must first seek authorisation from Rema to use them,” he said.

Experts say oxo biodegradable plastic packaging is safe ‘for contact’ with any food products and is also good for frozen food packaging and can be recycled.

Officials from Alternative Packaging Solution, a company that imports oxo biodegradable bags from the UK, said they have been instructed by Rema to inscibe on the oxo bags the type of products it can handle.

The products include beef, chicken, fish and ground fresh cassava leaves. The price per unit of oxo biodegradable bag is Rwf20 per kilogramme bag, Rwf30 for 2 kilogrammes and Rwf50 for 5 kilogrammes.

Expert view on bioplastic bags

Kornelia Kirchweger, an expert working for Energy Globe Foundation, a non-profit eco-organisation, told The New Times that bioplastic bags are being used in Austria and Europe, and can be can be used in Rwanda because of their eco-friendly features.

Kirchweger said the term ‘biodegradable’ refers to a chemical process during which micro-organisms that are available in the environment convert materials into natural substances such as water, carbon dioxide and biomass and can reduce the impact on the environment.

She, however, said unless they are produced in Rwanda, they are likely to drive up the prices of goods and make local products not competitive, adding that in Austria, bioplastic bags are common in supermarkets, pharmacies and shopping centres.

However, the consumer has to pay for such a bag.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw