By ELSIE EYAKUZE

More by this Author

Listen, I don’t want you to think it is your fault that the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is in distress, or that you contribute to the climate change situation.

But. Well, it kind of is, just a little bit. We are all failed eco-warriors in this day and age. A reader asked me to write about the dangers of plastics, so I thought I would do some research. Only to have a horrible realisation: microbeads! Consumerism! Gadgets! And the soft drinks industry.

Do you check the label on your clothes before you buy them? When was the last time you held a pencil to write with, instead of a cheap plastic pen. Do you use said cheap plastic pen you got at a conference or borrowed from a stranger at the bank until the ink runs out? Do you know even, like, know what that ink contains? Yeah, me neither. Plastics are ubiquitous and sneakier than the average consumer has any control over.

I’m not very good with chemistry but here’s an attempt: fossils. All these petrochemicals, or as they have been rebranded, hydrocarbons, are at fault.

Dead biological things that got compressed into black ooze and earth-farts that we now dig up and burn. Tell me that’s not poetic, in a circle-of-life kind of way? We should all have aspirations. Those comfortable sandals you are wearing, that fabulous new colour in your living room? One day, you too shall be a part of it — if all goes well geologically.

Thing about hydrocarbons — oil, gas, whatever else — is that without them we wouldn’t be nearly where we are today. Industrial revolution, planes and trains and automobiles. Without them my power utility company wouldn’t even know where to begin providing service.

As I write this, I am looking around an abode full of petrochemical convenience: from my decidedly outdated mobile phone to the plastic cover on the computer, the Bata kandambili (sandals), the plastic coating on the radio, the headphones, the... the everything. Everywhere. All the time. It is a quandary.

So what was supposed to be a comment in support of the banning of plastic bags has become a bit of a meditation on the finding of hydrocarbon reserves in East Africa and our role as producers and consumers in the plastics situation. As with most things in nature there is nothing intrinsically evil about hydrocarbons. It’s what we do with them that is the point.

The soda people

Thank goodness more countries are adopting a ban on plastic bags. I know that Tanzania has. Repeatedly. I hope we will one day adhere to our laws in a socially constructive and eco-friendly manner. I think it is possible, and has been demonstrated as such but there is a catch: you have to want to.

Banning plastic bags is easy. It is easier than banning plastic forks and knives, plates, straws, and my very local pet peeve: containers for soft drinks, which is where these soda people should just be ashamed of themselves. We had a fine recycling situation going on with the bottle exchange system.

Now people throw Coca Cola “take-away” and used plastic containers from food packers out of their tinted car windows wherever and whenever they feel like it — including in our game reserves.

If ever there was an escalation needed for a situation, this would be the next frontier: the food and beverage industries. Where did the joy of a newspaper-wrapped bag of chips and dubious mishkaki go? I miss the taste of mild poisoning by printer’s ink.

What about the woven grocery baskets we would take to market, letting everything pack in a particular way (never put the meat on top, or the eggs on the bottom).

They went the way of convenience. Nothing, nothing has proved more convenient than plastic.

Until such a time as we embrace and understand what it is costing us, frankly there’s not much to say other than the usual. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

To be honest I am hoping that the jute industries will be able to pick up the slack, and in watching the triumphs and tribulations of countries that have got rid of plastic there is a lot of inspiration.

Two-fold: we can either force technology take care of it (there is such a thing as biodegradable plastic, who knew) or revert to previous technologies, as implied by the comment about shopping baskets.

In the meantime: I don’t mean to make you feel guilty, but do you think you could maybe not buy a two-litre coke next time? And yes, that’s why fountain pens are cool.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report. E-mail: [email protected]