Plastic products levies Farouk Cassim (Cope), Milnerton

WHEN I was an MP and the honourable Bantu Holomisa was deputy minister I introduced a private members bill to deal with plastic and rubber waste.

I handed the project to the department to take forward. Minister Valli Moosa introduced a levy on plastic bags. Where the money has gone to is a mystery. The situation has deteriorated.

In yesterday’s Cape Times I read an article by Edward Roman titled “With millions of sea creatures dying, let’s all rethink how we use plastic”.

On April 11, I raised the issue of plastic waste floating in the ocean devastating marine life in the Sustainability and Resilience cluster committee.

Our oceans are a mess. Roman said: “51 species of African fish are nearing extinction”. The immense pollution of our oceans will decimate marine life. The plastic bag is the bane of our lives. Our failure to act will leave our progeny without the natural resources that humankind depended on for millennia.

All life emerged out of the ocean. Even if my colleague Grant Haskin of the ACDP has other views, the facts are solidly embedded in rocks. The health of the oceans is the guarantee of our health and wellbeing.

We are also acidifying the oceans as a result of the large scale emission of greenhouse gases.

The oceans are our great carbon sinks but they can no longer deal with the quantity of carbon that has to be sequestrated.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa attends the Commonwealth conference soon he will be representing one of the 46 ocean states. For all of them the health and sustainability of our oceans has to be a high priority.

As with mining, the time has come to demand the creation of a rehabilitation fund for our rivers and oceans which has to be paid by all manufacturers of plastic products. Plastics that are most dangerous to marine life should command the highest levies.