Guinea has banned the manufacture, import, sales, and use of some single-use plastics.
Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, the self-proclaimed interim president of the West African country, signed a decree officialising the ban on Sept. 21.
The regulation aims to take pressure off the country’s struggling waste management system by reducing plastic pollution. According to a WACA report commissioned by the World Bank, around 83.5% of solid waste is mismanaged in Guinea. In 2019, the country generated around 616,000 kg of plastic waste per day.
The ban applies to single-used plastics in commercial and industrial applications, including plastic bags and oxo-degradable plastics. Plastic packaging for water and other liquids is exempt from the ban, as are single-use plastics for medical, agricultural, military, and garbage collection applications.
The decree allows for a six month transition period when companies can sell off their ordered or existing stock. Plastic manufacturers will have up to two years to comply with the decree.
According to the latest available data (2018 and 2019), Guinea has no domestic plastic production. WACA reports that Guinea’s conversion industry processed 15,000 tonnes of resin (14 kt PE, 1 kt PET) in 2018 and 17,000 of resin (16 kt PE, 1 kt PET) in 2019.
Guinea is a net importer of plastics, much like other West African countries. In 2019, it imported 51.9 million kilograms of plastics, with PE and PP accounting for about 90.2% of imports.
Doumbouya said in a televised address that companies or individuals who fail to comply with the ban will be subject to administrative fines, without specifying the penalty amounts.
The colonel headed the military junta which toppled Guinea’s former president Alpha Condé in September 2021. Guinea has since then been suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), barring it from trade activities with its neighbours.