Kampala - Any person caught using plastic bags in Uganda from early 2010 will be jailed for three years or be fined an equivalent of 1,500 dollars, press reports said Saturday, quoting government environment lawyers. The penalties fall under the country's revised law on the waste management act, which will be put into effect in January by the state-owned National Environment Management Organization (NEMA), The New Vision quoted the organization's lawyer, Christine Akello as saying.
Uganda's finance minister announced a ban on the sale or use of plastic bags during the reading of the East African country's national budget on Thursday and ordered all factories manufacturing the plastic bags to wind up business.
Discarded plastic bags - too thin to be reused - are a major polluter in many African cities, where they clog up rivers and pile up in mountains.
Government further said that taxes of up to 120 per-cent will be levied on imported plastic materials currently on transit into the country.
