Department of Environmental Management, University of South Africa, Private Bag X6, Florida 1710, South Africa.
J Environ Public Health. 2020 Oct 31;2020:8892773. doi: 10.1155/2020/8892773. eCollection 2020.
Plastic bag waste is a major challenge in several African countries. As a way of reducing the detrimental effects posed by plastic bags, governments have adopted various approaches for plastic bag waste management that include levies, bans and or the combination of the two. Despite the adoption of anti-plastic bag policies in several African countries, there has been limited investigation regarding their effectiveness. Thus, the present paper reviews the effectiveness of legal and policy framework approaches for plastic bag waste management in African countries. This systematic review covers legal and policy framework approaches for plastic bag waste management in African countries since 2004 with a view to find their effectiveness. Data sources included peer-reviewed journal articles, websites, books, reports, and dissertations. The databases from which literature was retrieved included Elsevier, Taylor, Springer, institutional repository, and Google Scholar. The current paper argues that poorly enforced plastic bag legislation, resistance from stakeholders, and limited effective substitutes are major factors hindering effective plastic bag waste management in Africa. A six-step model developed by Patton and Sawicki assisted in evaluating plastic bag policies in varied African nations. The study concluded that the key to effective legislation is hinged on consistent enforcement and educating the public to attain environmental buy-in. African countries should adopt and implement the Patton and Sawicki six-step rationalist model to achieve effective plastic bag legislation. African governments should enlighten consumers about other alternatives that are more specific to African countries, especially bags made of raffia and leaves. The findings are limited in that there may be other relevant articles (beyond published articles) about policy and legal approaches for plastic bag waste management, which are not available in the public domain. Therefore, data reviewed may not be exhaustible.
塑料袋废物是非洲几个国家面临的主要挑战之一。为了减少塑料袋带来的有害影响，各国政府采取了各种方法来管理塑料袋废物，包括征收费用、禁令以及两者的结合。尽管非洲几个国家已经采取了反塑料袋政策，但对其效果的调查研究有限。因此，本文回顾了非洲国家管理塑料袋废物的法律和政策框架方法的效果。本系统综述涵盖了自 2004 年以来非洲国家管理塑料袋废物的法律和政策框架方法，以寻找其效果。数据来源包括同行评议的期刊文章、网站、书籍、报告和论文。检索文献的数据库包括爱思唯尔、泰勒、施普林格、机构知识库和谷歌学术。本文认为，塑料袋立法执行不力、利益相关者的抵制以及有效替代品有限，是阻碍非洲有效管理塑料袋废物的主要因素。Patton 和 Sawicki 开发的六步模型有助于评估不同非洲国家的塑料袋政策。研究得出的结论是，有效立法的关键在于持续执行和教育公众以获得环境认可。非洲国家应采用并实施 Patton 和 Sawicki 的六步理性主义模型，以实现有效的塑料袋立法。非洲政府应使消费者了解其他更适合非洲国家的替代品，特别是用拉菲草和树叶制成的袋子。研究结果存在局限性，因为可能还有其他关于塑料袋废物管理政策和法律方法的相关文章（超出已发表的文章），这些文章在公共领域不可用。因此，审查的数据可能不完整。
