Using Plastic Bags Is Now Illegal — And Punishable By Jail Time — In Kenya
"No matter where you go in Kenya — from the vast expanses of the Great Rift
Valley to the white-sand beaches off the Indian Ocean — one thing is a constant: plastic bags."
"They hang off trees and collect along curbs. And in Kibera, a sprawling slum in Nairobi, there are so many of them that they form hills."
"But beginning today, almost all plastic bags are illegal in Kenya. Beginning today, if you're carrying your groceries in a plastic bag or put out your trash in a disposable one, you could be fined up to $38,000 or be sent to jail for up to four years."
"'It is toxin that we must get rid of,' Judi Wakhungu, the country's cabinet secretary for the environment, told reporters. 'It's affecting our water. It's affecting our livestock and even worst, we're ingesting this as human beings.'"