EXPOSE REASONS

The uncontrolled proliferation of plastic bags is responsible for many environmental problems, but also for the environment and health.

On the ecological side, in addition to the visual pollution of the soil, the congestion of the gutters and sewers, the plastic sachets, whose time of presence in nature is several centuries, are at the origin, in rural areas in particular, of the Degradation of cropland, decreased agricultural spaces and soil infiltration coefficient, and reduced agricultural yield. With regard to plants, plastic sachets can inhibit photosynthesis and seed germination, thus negatively impacting the regeneration of the stands.

The harmful action of plastic sachets also manifests itself in relation to animals, especially the livestock and marine mammals, who die suffocated by trying to ingest them.

On the health side, the burning of plastic sachets leads to the production of persistent organic pollutants (dioxins and furans) that cause eye irritation, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer. In addition, plastic pouches serve as a pocket for the proliferation of disease vectors, mosquitoes in particular.

In order to combat these adverse effects, the present draft law proposes the standardisation and standardisation of the production and import of plastic sachets to allow the placing on the market only of high quality sachets, Resistant and reusable.

This solution combines flexibility and efficiency. Since the plastic pouches covered by the ban are essentially imported, the risk of slowing down or stopping the activities of the plastics industry is ruled out. It also ensures a higher level of environmental protection.

In addition to the ban on plastic sachets of low micraching, this draft law provides for measures to promote the environmentally sound management of solid and flexible plastic waste, which is increasingly valued.

The present draft law contains 17 articles. Article 1 deals with the definition of terms.

Articles 2 and 3 give the principle of banning plastic sachets of low microplasm and that of the end of free of charge for plastic bags with a thickness greater than or equal to 30 microns.

Articles 4 to 7 aim to standardize the production of plastic bags and promote the environmentally sound management of plastic waste.

Articles 8 to 16 provide for offences and penalties, as well as the principle of criminal liability of legal persons.

Article 17 establishes a time limit for the plastics industry to adjust to the new situation.

This is the purpose of this bill.

The National Assembly adopted, at its meeting on Tuesday 21 April 2015;
The President of the Republic enacts the following legislation:

Article 1. -For the purposes of this Law:

-waste: any substance or waste disposed of or intended to be disposed of or required to be disposed of under existing laws and regulations;
-plastic waste: any waste made of plastic, whether it is thermoplastic, thermosetting or composite plastics;
-plastics industry: any owner or manager of a unit of production or manufacturing of plastic products according to industrial processes;
-ecotoxicity: study of the behaviour and effects of agents contained in plastic sachets on ecosystems in order to determine the relative thresholds beyond which they have toxic effects or below which they are harmless;
-rational management of plastic waste: any measure to ensure that plastic waste is managed in a way that ensures the protection of the environment and human and animal health from the harmful effects that can be To have this waste;
-plastics sector operator: any person, natural or legal entity involved in the production or manufacture or import of plastic products or plastics or the recycling or recovery of plastic waste;
-recycling: the direct reintroduction of a waste in the production cycle from which it is derived, in total or partial replacement of a new raw material;
-plastic bag: plastic container having, in its upper part, a cutout in the form of a brace (pouch) made from a polyethylene film;
-recovery: re-employment, recycling or any other action to obtain, from waste, reusable materials or energy.

Art. 2. -The production, importation, use, holding for sale and sale or distribution of plastic sachets of a thickness less than 30 shall be prohibited throughout the national territory. Microns.

Article 3. -The plastic pouches of a thickness greater than or equal to 30 microns, whatever their intended use, cannot be distributed or offered free of charge.

A joint decree of the Ministers responsible for trade and the environment sets the price of their transfer to the users.

Art. 4. -Plastic bags with a thickness greater than or equal to 30 microns must comply with the technical standards for the manufacture, composition of materials, labelling and ecotoxicity fixed by an order made on the proposal of the Minister Responsible for the environment.

Art. 5. -Plastics manufacturers are required to reduce the amount of plastic waste that can result from their activities by developing, where appropriate, waste recovery activities resulting from their production processes or processes.

Article 6. -Operators of the plastics sector are required to propose to households and other users a system for collecting or resuming plastic waste for recovery, recycling or disposal.

The Minister responsible for the environment shall, after consulting the Ministers in charge of trade and industry and in relation to the operators of the plastics sector and the local authorities concerned, establish by order the Minister responsible for the environment. The conditions under which the operations for the collection or recovery, storage, sorting and transport of plastic waste and their recovery, recycling or disposal must be carried out.

Art. 7. -The operators of the plastics sector shall keep a register in which they record the measures which they have the obligation to take pursuant to Articles 5 and 6 of this Law.

This register shall be submitted at first request to the screening officers referred to in Article 9 of this Law. The sole purpose of the control carried out in this framework is to determine the extent to which the operators of the plastics sector are fulfilling their obligations under this Act.

The conditions for keeping the register and the mandatory particulars to be included in it shall be determined by order of the Minister responsible for the environment.

Article 8. -Any person who owns or uses plastic products shall be required, when such products become waste, to deposit or forward them to the collection or recovery points set up for that purpose.

Art. 9. -Infringements of the provisions of this Law or of its implementing legislation shall be recognised by the officers and judicial police officers and the sworn officers of the Ministries responsible for the environment, of the Health, Industry, Trade and Economy.

The finding of offences shall be recorded in a verbatim record in accordance with the rules of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

In the exercise of their duties, officers who do not have the status of a judicial police officer may request the force of the public when such requisition is justified.

Art. 10. -The production or manufacture of plastic bags in contravention of the provisions of Article 2 of this Law shall be punishable by a fine of 10 000 000 to 20 000 000 CFA francs and imprisonment for three (3) months to six (6) months or one of these Only two sentences.

Art. 11. -The importation into the national territory of plastic sachets of a thickness of less than 30 microns is a customs infringement found, prosecuted and punished in accordance with the provisions of the Customs Code.

Art. 12. -Use, detention for sale, sale and sale or distribution free of plastic sachets of a thickness of less than 30 microns are punishable by a fine of 20 000 to 50 000 CFA francs.

If the offender is a trader or distributor, the maximum amount of the penalty is pronounced.

Art. 13. -The operators of the plastics sector shall have failed to keep a register or to present it at first request or to bear the compulsory particulars shall be punished by a fine of 2 000 000 to 5 000 000 CFA and imprisonment of one (1) day to one (1) month or one of these two penalties only.

In the event that the control of the register reveals an infringement of the provisions of Articles 5 and 6 of this Law, the author shall be punished by a fine of 5 000 000 to 10 000 000 CFA and imprisonment for one (1) month to three (3) months or Only one of these penalties.

Art. 14. -A fine of 10 000 to 30 000 CFA francs is imposed on anyone who abandons or throws plastic waste anywhere other than in the collection or recovery points provided for that purpose.

In the event of a repeat offence, the maximum amount of the sentence shall be pronounced.

Art. 15. -Legal persons other than the State, local authorities and public establishments are criminally liable for the offences provided for by this Law, committed on their behalf by their bodies or representatives.
The liability of legal persons does not exclude that of natural persons, authors or accomplices of the same facts.

Art. 16. -The penalties incurred by legal persons are:

-the fine whose maximum rate is equal to the five times that provided for natural persons by the law which represses the offence;
-the final closure or for a period of five (5) years at most one or more of the establishments of the undertaking having been used to commit the acts in question;
-confiscation of the thing that served or was intended to commit the offence or the thing that is the product;
-the posting of the decision or the dissemination of it either by the written press or by any means of communication to the public by electronic means.

Art. 17. -This Law shall enter into force at the end of the sixth month from its publication in the Official Journal.

This Law shall be enforced as the law of the State.

Done at Dakar, May 04, 2015

Macky SALL
By the President of the Republic:

The Prime Minister,
Mahammed Boun Abdallah DIONNE