Angola establishes task force to draft anti-plastic law

In an effort to tackle environmental pollution, Angolan President João Lourenço has set up a task force to draft a national legal plan to ban plastic.

In a presidential decree published in the Jornal de Angola, João Lourenço explained that there are “worrying levels of pollution resulting from the use of plastic in general”.

The decree specifies that the task force will initially be responsible for carrying out a national diagnosis to “measure the state of pollution” in the country.

In Angola, 12.4 million plastic bags are distributed for free every day in trade, said the head of the National Solid Waste Agency.

Angola has a 1,600-kilometre coastline and plastic pollution is a real threat to aquatic ecosystems.

Last year, the head of the National Solid Waste Agency said that a total of 12.4 million plastic bags are distributed free of charge every day in Angola in commercial exchanges.

According to the UN, more than 800 marine and coastal species are affected by plastic pollution through ingestion and entanglement, while about 11 million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the ocean every year.

According to the UN, this figure could triple by 2040.