Angola, which produces daily 4,560 tons of plastics and recycles less than 10% of the total waste, has banned, from today, the production, import and sale of single-use plastics below 0.05 millimeters in thickness.
The measure includes bottles, cups, utensils, bags, crockery, straws and cotton swabs made of plastics thinner than 50 microns (micras) or an average length equivalent to 0.05 millimeters.
The prohibition is part of the National Plan for the Progressive Elimination of Single-Use Plastics (PLANEPP) 2025-2027 and was announced at a press conference in Luanda.
According to Yuri Santos, the Secretary of State for the Environment, the use in the Angolan market of all plastic material with thickness below 0.05 millimeters is prohibited, with plastics thicker than the referenced thickness allowed to be used.
“The bags that we commonly have on the market are not recyclable, they are often dumped openly and our national recycling capacity is still very low,” he said.
For the Angolan authorities, PLANEPP 2025-2027, nationwide, represents a “decisive step” in the State’s response to one of the greatest environmental challenges of the present: the increasing production, use and improper disposal of plastic products.
Yuri Santos noted that Angola faces a waste-management challenge, with daily production estimated at 19 thousand tons, of which 39% are organic waste and followed by plastics at almost 24% and the remainder paper/cardboard.
“And our recycling rate is below 10%. So, that means that a large part of these wastes are collected and deposited in our landfill,” he lamented, noting that the objective of the campaign “is to create value.”
He highlighted that bags thinner than 50 microns have no value, arguing that they are collected and deposited directly in landfills and when they reach the soil they cause negative impacts on the trenches, rivers, oceans, affecting biodiversity, the ecosystems and public health.
“Our objective is to eliminate this type of bags from our market,” insisted the Secretary of State for the Environment, noting that the PLANEPP is accompanied by a monitoring report.
Enforcement of the measures, he added, will be the responsibility of the National Authority for Economic Inspection and Food Safety (ANIESA), having added that producers and other operators of the market had a 12-month grace period.
The Secretary of State for Industry, Carlos Manuel Rodrigues, said that the country has 33 factories producing plastic bags, where surveys were conducted on their installed capacity, and during this period these have made adjustments “without great need for investment.”
“We are talking only about the thickness of the plastic bag. We can control from the production side and there the industry has mechanisms to verify production (…). And, on the other hand, we have the import side of these products where the Government will not issue any kind of license,” he assured journalists.
Carlos Manuel Rodrigues guaranteed that through production and import controls the authorities can regulate the market and with the monitoring mechanisms that the country has there will be monitoring.
The PLANEPP also establishes fines for violators of the measure that aims at the progressive elimination of plastics, which go from 25 thousand to five million kwanzas (23 to 4.7 thousand euros) for individuals and from one million to 300 million kwanzas (954 to 286.4 thousand euros).
