Beyond a simple plastic bag ban

Three-plus years ago, the city of Santa Fe decided to ban the use of plastic bags in many stores, encouraging shoppers to bring reusable bags. The move was designed to protect the environment, not just locally but across the globe — plastic bags take hundreds of years to degrade, filling landfills and polluting the oceans.

Still, the local bag ban has been somewhat controversial — plastic bags are, if nothing else, convenient. Today most people have adjusted, with many bringing reusable shopping bags, others choosing paper and some just stacking their purchases in the cart sans bags.

Consider, then, the situation in Rwanda where a 2008 bag ban is enforced with intensity. According to a recent report in The New York Times, “it is illegal to import, produce, use or sell plastic bags and plastic packaging except within specific industries like hospitals and pharmaceuticals.” Travelers can be searched to find the offending plastics; women tape the bags to their arms, legs and torsos before covering them with clothing.

Rwanda is just one of more than 40 nations around the world that have in some way restricted plastic bags, whether with a complete ban or taxing their use. However, the approach in Rwanda is on a whole other level. Smugglers caught with illegal plastic bags can be fined, jailed and even pushed to make public confessions.

Shaming, it seems, can work. Sentences can be serious, too, with some smugglers serving up to six months in jail and executives of companies that keep or make plastic bags sent behind bars for as long as a year. Even wrapping bread in cellophane, The Times reports, has led to the shutdown of stores, with owners forced to sign letters of apology. (The stakes are escalating, too, with Kenya adopting a rule last month that could punish people making, selling or importing plastic bags with up to four years in jail or a fine of $19,000.)

The stakes are high because Rwanda is determined to clean up its environment. Leaders believe the bags contribute to flooding and impede the growth of healthy crops. Rains can’t soak in — either to the ground or to thirsty plants — if plastic covers the ground.

Santa Fe should be encouraged, not by the harsh sentences, perhaps, but by the impact of banning plastic. The Times reports that streets in Rwanda are spotless and citizens work together to keep the countryside clean — and they don’t mind turning in their neighbors who traffic in forbidden plastic. (One other Rwandan idea we like: Even the country’s president helps pick up trash. Gathering trash can’t be a mandatory once-a-month event as in Rwanda, but adding more frequent civic cleanups could build community and keep Santa Fe cleaner.)

In the United States, the decision to ban plastic bags — as happened in Santa Fe — is too often seen as a lifestyle choice. In Africa and other developing countries, banning plastics is about improving the lives of citizens and the planet. Santa Fe should be proud of its bag ban.