PSF intervenes in plastic bags row

The Private Sector Federation (PSF) has lent a sympathetic ear to a local company, Alternative Packaging Solution, which was recently slapped with a ban on importation of plastic bags by the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA).PSF, which does advocacy for businesses, underscored the need to rescind the decision, saying the company provided rare alternative packaging materials in the country.The company had been importing already made biodegradable plastic bags from a UK based company, Symphony International, for the last two years up to last month when REMA issued the ban.But in a confidential document from the PSF obtained by The New Times, part of which is expected to form their discussions with REMA, the former hits out at the regulator for consistently ‘restricting the 0xo-biodegradable plastics something that is said to be perplexing investors.’“It is strange and unacceptable to restrict something which in principle is not prohibited,” the summarised paper on the issue reads.Speaking to The New Times, Laurent Mbonigaba, an official from the PSF advocacy department said: “They did not consider the interests of consumers. Consumers want a well packaged product; if they banned the alternative solution, then it’s a problem”.Mbonigaba confirmed that PSF planned to hold talks with REMA over the issue.PSF’s argument relys on the basis of a letter from the Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) signed in October 2010, which indicated that the standards’ agency had verified that the ‘Oxo-biodegradable plastics’ packaging materials imported by Alternative Packaging Solution had stood the required test.Before starting its operations, Alternative packaging solution’s samples were tested and scientifically approved by Rwanda Bureau of Standards and it was authorised by REMA to import the friendly bags.“Madam Director, I would like to recommend that to the list be added plastic for packaging of cereal and flour products. Availability of such packaging material safeguards health and safety of the consumer and improves Rwanda’s export opportunities,” the RBS letter seen by The New Times reads in part.Scientifically, for the bags to approved, they must be capable of being degraded within at least one year.Philippe Michon, the Chief scientific Advisor of Symphony International and the Managing Director of Alternative Packaging Solution, Leon Semutakirwa, both maintain their products have been tested by RBS and the exporter’s laboratory in UK and found to be safe. “Similar bags with d2w additive degraded as intended in the open environment and our product has been successfully tested by Rwanda Bureau of Standards,” Michon told The New Times yesterday from Paris, France.The team from Symphony Company is expected in the country for talks with government officials.In an interview Remy Norbert Duhuze, the Director of Environmental Regulation and Pollution Control Unit at REMA, explained that there are some samples of the bags that they had kept for almost a year and were not biodegrading which prompted their action.He said the company has to once again scientifically prove that it’s viable and degradable.“We have doubts that these plastic bags are biodegradable. They need to come and prove to us. They gave us a sample that has now taken a year without degrading yet the company had convinced us that it would be degraded in six months,” Duhuze said.The importers argue that the sample the REMA officials are talking about was kept in a different condition in an office, where it could not access light though it accessed oxygen.Degradable plastics breakdown in appropriate conditions due either bacterial activity (biodegradable and compostable plastics) or as a result of physical and chemical impact splitting into small pieces over varying periods of time.

National

PSF intervenes in plastic bags row