Plastic bags considered by many as an inevitable companion is quite difficult to come by nowadays.
Kitchen managers most especially are going through a tough time due to the ban. Although the prescribed plastic bags are available they now have to buy in order to be served in the market, which was not the case.
The situation has exposed the carefree nature of some traders who now oblige customers to buy the heavy-weight plastic bags or come along with a bag for each item on their market list.
In the Sandaga Market, the sale of shopping bags and “sacs and moto” has increased. Traders in foodstuff prefer to stock their market places with the bags that range between FCFA 100 and FCFA 200.
For instance, a customer who wants to buy fresh fish, dresses, rice and Irish potatoes will not put all the items in the same bag. Charcoal sellers in the market add FCFA 50 as the cost for a plastic bag for their customer, while cold store dealers demand FCFA 150 as additional charge for a “sacs and moto”.
Wise kitchen managers have resorted in washing and reusing the plastic bags and “sacs and moto” rather than buying new ones each time they go shopping.
In supermarkets and bakeries the recommended plastic bags also command additional cost from customers rather than free as it was before now. Since shopkeepers say the heavy-weight plastic bags are expensive, all the cost is shifted to customers.
According to a staff of OK Plast-Cam at the Mboppi Market, a bag containing 1,250 small black plastic bags known as “leda” sells at FCFA 32,000, a bag of a bigger type with black and white strips known to producers as NBP containing 750 plastics costs FCFA 36,000 while a bag of the smaller whitish type containing 2,500 plastics commonly used by groundnut sellers cost FCFA 25,000.
