The government of Kenya announced a ban on the use, manufacture and import of all plastic bags, which will take effect in six months.

Kenyan Environment Minister Judi W. Wakhungu gave the order published in a gazette notice, which was dated February 28 and released to the public on Wednesday.

According to sources from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), some 100 million plastic bags are handed out every year in Kenya by supermarkets alone. Long identified as a major cause of environmental damage and health problems, they kill birds, fish and other animals that mistake them for food, damage agricultural land, pollute tourist sites and provide breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that carry malaria and dengue fever.

Plastic bags are the number one challenge for urban waste disposal in Kenya, particularly in the poorest communities where access to disposal systems and healthcare is limited.

They also contribute to the eight million tonnes of plastic that leak into the ocean every year. At the current rates, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish, wreaking havoc on marine fisheries, wildlife and tourism.

Kenya has become the 11th country to take action in support of the UNEP campaign.

In Africa, Rwanda and Morocco have already banned plastic bags, and other countries are set to announce measures in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere, Indonesia has committed to slash marine litter by 70%. Canada has added microbeads (tiny particles of plastic) to its list of toxic substances, and the UK and the US have banned microbeads in cosmetics.

(China Plus/CCTV March 21, 2016)