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Hurghada
Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) announced on the
2nd of April that Red Sea Governor, Major Ahmed Abdullah has introduced a ban on the “single-use” plastics due to its serious environmental damages and
to stop destroying the marine life.
The ban is set to take effect in the 1st of June, after
agreeing to the proposal submitted by Hepca and will be applied on related
outlets, including restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets, groceries,
butchers, fisheries, fruits and vegetables shops and pharmacies, as well as
plastic cutleries like knives, plugs, plastic hooks, cups and dishes. Heavy
garbage collection bags are not included in the ban.
The Red Sea
governorate is one step ahead of Cairo with the most needed eco-positive
decision, as two years ago, the Egyptian Environment Ministry launched the
‘Enough Plastic Bags’ campaign. "We want to limit this phenomenon to
preserve our maritime environment," Major Abdallah said.
The Egyptian
environment ministry launched an EU-funded initiative called “Enough Plastic
Bags” in 2017, to eliminate the country’s dependency on plastic bags, due to
their negative effects on the environment and the economy.
“The decree is to protect
the threatened and endangered species which are severely affected by ingestion,
starvation, suffocation, drowning, entanglement and toxicity from plastic
remains which affects the human health accordingly,” Hepca declared in a
statement.
"We will launch
an awareness campaign about the negative impacts of plastic on marine life and human
health, in addition to on-ground activities and events, giving lectures for
public and private schools, clean-up campaigns for islands, beaches and
underwater in collaboration with schools, diving centers, and the red sea
community," Hepca said.
Many other African
counties have launched similar initiatives to stop plastic bag usage as Rwanda
imposed a complete ban law on thin plastic bags in 2008, and approved severe sanctions such as jail
sentences and stiff fines for those who will be caught violating the law.
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