Cabo Verde will approve next year a new law to make the import of plastic stricter, discipline the marketing and use and create incentives to strengthen recycling, the environment minister said on Tuesday.
“We plan to submit a package that is already in the final stages of its preparation in the first half of 2022,” Gilberto Silva said at the end of a visit in the city of Praia to the Industrial Society for Transformation and Production of Plastic Materials (Caboplast), which is developing a project for recycling plastics.
According to the agriculture minister, the updated legislation will make the import of plastics stricter and somewhat regulate its sale and use and create incentives to boost recycling in the country.
“There are many possibilities in this area. We can work not only with industrial producers but also with the population in general, create incentives that allow, at the level of all the islands, we can also work on the collection, transport and final treatment on Santiago Island of the plastics produced, distributed or imported,” he said.
With the recycling of plastic, the minister said that the country could move ahead with producing pipes for agriculture, replacing those the country has imported over the years and which are in nature and are an environmental liability.
The minister made it clear that they cannot ban the use of plastics in the country overnight, and nor is that the goal, understanding that the process is progressive, as Cabo Verde not only has this waste that it imports and produces but also receives through the marine currents that wash ashore.
“Cabo Verde has 99% of its territory made up of sea, and we have every need to protect the sea from plastics that are abandoned in the oceans,” he said.
Besides Caboplast, there are already other similar projects in Cabo Verde, Santiago and Santo Antão, and recycling glass, cooking oil, tyres, among other initiatives to protect the environment.
The minister said Cabo Verde was giving two important signs with these projects and initiatives. Things are moving positively, and the private sector and civil society organisations are getting involved in this process.
In this sense, he underlined the state’s responsibility to create a good business environment and incentives and work on the education aspect to act responsibly and sustainably towards the environment.
Called “Nu djunta nu recicla” (Let’s join and recycle), the plastics producer’s project aims to collect discarded waste at household, industrial and commercial levels for recycling.
“We are facing a great initiative from the private sector, which also demonstrates the company’s environmental responsibility, which is not just producing the plastic and distributing it on the market,” the minister noted, understanding that it is an initiative with many benefits for the country.
Caboplast, which is Cabo Verdean but belongs to the Lebanese group Khym Negoce, has been in the market for over 20 years and already recycles waste produced internally.
But now it will start collecting plastic from other companies and schools and has an installed capacity to recycle up to 60 tonnes of that waste each month, the managing director said.
Chady Hojeige also said that the company was already acquiring other equipment to recycle all types of plastic scattered across the environment in Cabo Verde, reducing the entry of raw materials into the country.
According to Hojeige, the cleanest and most recycled plastics will be reintroduced to the production system, such as rubbish bags. In contrast, the others will be used for slabs that can be used in construction formwork, table and chair covers, sinks, among other utensils.
