Swept up: furor over plastic bags tumbling across the landscape sweeps South Africa.

Murphy's Law hit the South African recycling industry in the summer of 2003: Shortly after everyone--government, producers and consumers--thought they had a deal in place to reduce the use of and encourage the recycling of plastic bags, the deal got undermined by one of its largest and earliest supporters.

Recycling efforts in South Africa range from well-organized efforts, like the plastic bag program was conceived to be, to local projects in the townships that exist as much to create jobs as they do to harvest plastic or aluminum.

However, private enterprise already had made great strides in one area: plastic bag recycling. In May of 2003, the government asked supermarkets to stop giving away free plastic bags. Thin plastic bags in particular were banned: Bags had to be at least 30 microns. And Environmental Affairs Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa threatened offenders with a fine of 100,000 Rand (more than $14,000 U.S.) and up to 10 years in jail.

It was a loud volley that was fired when administration of the green tax was moved from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to the Department of Environmental Affairs (www.environment.gov.za).

As a way to help themselves avoid the draconian tree system, larger players in the retail industry agreed to charge for plastic bags. Companies like ShopRite-Checkers, Pick 'n Pay, Foodworld, Truworths, Foschini, Pepkor, Fruit & Veg, Spar Markets, Ackermans Cape Union Mart, Woolworths and others reached agreement on the policy.

The companies agreed to charge 46 bout h African cents (about six U.S. cents) for a 24-liter bag, 31 cents for 12-liter bags, and 25 cents for the 10-liter size. And so it went for a couple of months. Some of the big food stores started offering their own cloth bags. Spar Markets, for example, pushed an attractive green bag at its checkout counters. Cashiers offering them to customers who chose to substitute them for plastic bags for five Rand (about 75 U.S. cents), and many store regulars could be seen putting their purchases in the reusable bags.

Then, in mid-August, Pick 'n Pay dropped its fee to 17 cents (about two U.S. cents) for a 24-liter bag and 12 cents for the 12-liter plastic bag. That left everyone scrambling--would customers change stores to save a few cents on plastic bags?

There was also an earlier tempest, as retail chain Mr. Price refused to charge for bags at all. Moosa, who has run Environmental Affairs since June of 1999, expressed his displeasure. "Mr. Price is best advised not to frustrate this hard-earned process, for the good of the country and its people," Moosa said at the time. "We will clamp down on whoever is hell-bent on polluting the environment," he added.

Yet he was a bit more standoffish about the Pick 'n Pay maneuver to lower its bag prices. While the move to drop the price may not follow the letter of the agreement signed between government, business and labor in the fall of 2002 and (which took effect starting in May of 2003), it did not undermine his department's efforts, Moosa said.

Moosa earlier had been widely quoted as saying there are so many bags blowing about they nearly outnumber the protea--South Africa's national flower. Yet he chose not to take Pick 'n Pay to the mat, saying that the whole plastic bag affair had created massive environmental awareness-raising in this country in a very short space of time."

He speculated regulations had been "too successful" as demand had dropped way below what had been expected and manufacturers were now looking at retrenchments--a step they had originally agreed they would not take. Environmental Affairs eventually proposed selling plastic bags at cost and allowing retailers to give away bags of more than 4 microns.

Meanwhile, in August the government proposed a "Green Tax" to try to reduce the amount of waste being landfilled. The proposal allows the Environment Minister to impose a tax on any items in South Africa's waste stream. Car and truck tires, aluminum cans, glass bottles and plastic bags are the main targets, according to a Department of Environmental Affairs spokesperson.

PAPER OR PLASTIC?

South Africa is not the only nation that has taken measures to address the problem of lightweight plastic bags as prominent sources of litter on the landscape.

Whereas in the U.S. consumers in most instances have their choice between paper and plastic bags at the grocery store, some governments have helped steer the choice away from plastic.

In the fall of 2000, poor trash collection and the harming of cows, sacred to Hindus, prompted India's largest state to ban the use of plastic bags. The action prompted a backlash from businesses dependent on the bags.

According to protesters, "thousands of cows" were dying each year after they attempted to eat the contents of littered bags. The cows often choked on the plastic bags after trying to eat food waste inside the bags.

The Republic of Ireland has seen the use of plastic bags at retailers decline after similar efforts were discussed in 2002 and the litter problem was brought to the forefront of public debate.

In the spring of 2003, a Green Party member of the South Australian state parliament introduced a measure similar to South Africa's, which would result in a 25-cent charge for the use of plastic bags at retailers.