Authorities in Dar es Salaam have launched a campaign to remove illegal plastic bags finding their way back to the streets.

Regional Commissioner Amos Makala announced the campaign at a meeting with officials of the district council, major city markets and the National Environment Council Management.

He directed NECM to prepare a team for a campaign, also holding accountable those found to be producing and supplying banned plastic bags, asserting that he had checked the matter with Vice President Dr Phillip Mpango and obtained green light for the campaign.

This campaign is likely to be taken up in other regions, he asserted, the NEMC officials also experienced in preparing teams to tackle the presence of banned plastic bags all over the country.

The government banned single-use plastic bags for routine carrying for food kinds of stuff and shopping in June 2019, but since then, alternative bags have appeared on the market, some not meeting standards for recyclable bags, those which aren’t single-use.