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FROM PAGE B4
Since they appeared in the 1990s, water sachets have become a major pollutant across much of Africa, but they remain popular for drinking, cooking and even washing.
Some 200 firms produce the sachets in Lagos, and several hundred more recycle plastic, but supply vastly outstrips capacity in a country with few public wastebins and little environmental education.
Lagos banned single-use plastic in January, but with little impact so far.
The United Nations estimates up to 60 million water sachets are discarded across Nigeria every day.
Rio
Each day, vendors walk the sands of some of Rio de Janeiro’s most beautiful beaches, lugging metal containers filled with the tea-like drink mate.
The iced beverage, infused with fruit juice, is dispensed into plastic cups for eager sun worshippers dotted along the seafront.
“Drinking mate is part of Rio de Janeiro’s culture,” explained Arthur Jorge da Silva, 47, as he scouted for customers. He acknowledged the environmental impacts of his towers of plastic cups, in a country ranked the fourth-biggest producer of plastic waste in 2019.
But “it’s complicated” to find affordable alternatives, he told AFP.
The tanned salesman said mate vendors on the beach had used plastic for as long as he could remember.
He pays a dollar for a tower of 20 cups and charges customers $1.80 for each drink. Bins along Rio’s beaches receive about 130 tons of waste a day, but plastic is not separated, and just three percent of Brazil’s waste is recycled annually.
Evelyn Talavera, 24, said she does her best to clean up when leaving the beach.
“We have to take care of our planet, throw the garbage away, keep the environment clean.”
Plastic straws have been banned in Rio’s restaurants and bars since 2018, and shops are no longer required to offer free plastic bags -- though many still do.
Congress is also considering legislation that would ban all single-use plastic.
Paris
In France, single-use plastic has been banned since 2016, but while items like straws and plastic cutlery have disappeared, plastic bags remain stubbornly common.
At Paris’ Aligre market, stalls are piled with fruit, vegetables and stacks of bags ready to be handed out.
Most are stamped “reusable and 100-percent recyclable”, and some are described as compostable or produced from natural materials.
But experts have cast doubt on the environmental relevance of some of these claims.
Vendor Laurent Benacer gets through a 24-euro ($26) box of 2,000 bags each week.
“In Paris, everyone asks for a bag,” he told AFP.
“I’d stopped, but my neighbours continued, so I had to restart.”
There are alternatives like paper bags, but some customers are simply not convinced.
“Plastic bags remain practical, so everything doesn’t spill everywhere,” insisted 80-year-old customer Catherine Sale.
Dubai
At the Allo Beirut restaurant in Dubai, plastic containers are piled high, waiting to be filled and delivered across the city.
“We receive more than 1,200 orders a day,” said delivery manager Mohammed Chanane.
“We use plastic boxes because they are more airtight, and better preserve the food,” he said.
With few pedestrians and an often-scorching climate, many of Dubai’s 3.7 million residents rely on delivery for everything from petrol to coffee.
Residents of the United Arab Emirates have one of the highest volumes of waste per capita in the world.
And single-use plastic accounts for 40 percent of all plastic used in the country.
Since June, single-use plastic bags and several similar items have been banned. Polystyrene containers will follow next year.