" While plastic began by making our lives easier, it is now cluttering up our landfill sites, disfiguring our landscapes, seeping into the seas and oceans and turning into toxic fumes, making it one of the most serious threats to the planet", Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui warned on Friday.

"What's more, many plastic products contain dangerous additives that can pose a threat to our health, and even to fertility and the survival of the species", she added, at a conference held by her department to present the programme for World and National Environment Days, to be celebrated on June 5 and 11, 2023 respectively, on the theme of "Sustainable solutions to reduce plastic pollution".

Some 11 million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the oceans every year. This figure could triple by 2040, given that plastic pollution threatens more than 300,000 species, according to the final report of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) held in Nairobi in March 2022.

The Minister also emphasised the importance of education on various environmental issues (protection and/or restoration of biodiversity, pursuit of sustainable development, ecological transition, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, etc.), as a measure to support public policies in this area.

The celebration of World and National Environment Days will be spread over several days (from June 5 to 15, 2023), so that various themes can be addressed with a view to informing and raising awareness among stakeholders.

Artistic performances (operetta, musical works) are planned, as well as a number of activities, including a fair to be held on June 5 and 6 at the Cité de la Culture to showcase various projects, achievements and solutions relating to the environment.

An environmental party entitled "Women ambassadors, the ultimate supporters of sustainable development" is scheduled for June 7 at the Tunis Botanical Gardens (Arboretum) and the Cité des Sciences. Other events, workshops, forums and conferences on various environmental themes are scheduled from June 8 to 15.

In a statement to the media on the sidelines of the conference, the Minister urged the public to use cloth or handmade bags to buy bread, in support of the Ministry's efforts to limit the use of plastic bags. She called for people to avoid the paper packaging offered by modern bakeries, as they are not environmentally friendly and their production process requires large quantities of water and energy.

She pointed out that the ban on plastic bags in modern and subsidised bakeries avoids the use of 5 million plastic bags every day.

Plastic bags have been completely banned from all Tunisian bakeries from March 23, 2023, under partnership agreements signed on March 17 between the Ministry of the Environment, the Tunisian Bakeries Association (UTICA) and the Professional Association of Modern Bakeries (CONECT).

The decision, which also concerns shops selling bread, affects 5,000 bakeries in the country (3,500 of which are subsidised and 1,500 modern), which sell around 10 million units (of bread) a day. These bakeries serve around 5 million single-use plastic bags a day, according to data provided when the agreements were signed with the two unions.

All commercial premises selling bread are also affected by this decision, and offenders risk being fined from 100 dinars to 50,000 dinars.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse