The Sunday Mail
THE July 12 ban on expanded polystyrene – kaylite – by the Environmental Management Authority has pulled the rug from under the feet of manufacturers, with Planas Limited, arguably the biggest local supplier, claiming last week that its $8 million investment was at risk.
Initially, the ban — effected through Statutory Instrument 84 of 2012 (Plastic Packaging and Plastic Bottles) (Amendment) Regulations, 2012 (No 1) — targeted expanded polystyrene throwaway containers used for packaging takeaway meals.
It preceded another ban on thin plastic shopping bags used to pack delicate foods such as bread, which had a thickness of between 25 and 30 micrometres.
These measures were rescinded after stiff resistance in the market.
It is believed the latest ban – which has been suspended for three months to give stakeholders time to adapt – has been occasioned by research which concluded that the use of kaylite was harmful to health.
Dejected manufacturers
Zimbabwe’s major kaylite manufacturers, Planas and Wow Pack, and several other firms employing hundreds of people collectively are no longer at ease.
Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Polystyrene Packaging Council Ms Melody Frank — who is also an executive at Planas — told The Sunday Mail Business last week they were “devastated”.
The ZPPC was formed in 2012 as Government started moving to regulate use of plastic and polystyrene.
“As Planas, we have put in about US$6 million worth of machinery; we bought a new premises for US$1,2 million because after Versapack (Private) Limited had shut down, we wanted to take advantage of SI 64 of 2016 to produce locally.
“So we bought new machinery and we had proposed to Simbisa Brands that we would make their product locally because they are importing from South Africa. So that is one of the things we had worked on and agreed.
“We bought another machine, which is a printing machine at over US$1,2 million as well, for Simbisa Brands’ (packaging),” said Ms Frank.
Planas, which is owned by a Chinese investor, started operating in 2013 after getting Zimbabwe Investment Authority approval. It has four machines that produce kaylite, including state-of-the-art equipment imported specifically to produce for Chicken Inn, a unit of industrial behemoth Innscor Africa’s Simbisa Brands.
Planas recently struck a deal to supply Chicken Inn with 800 000 kaylite boxes monthly. It seems now the new printing machinery – understood to be on a ship to the Port of Beira, Mozambique for onward road ferrying to Zimbabwe – will be redundant before producing a single unit.
Ms Frank said: “We had imported the machine and we had been working on it for many months. The machine was only going to make (kaylite) for Simbisa (and) the printing component was the only one that was now left.
“We have got about four of these machines here but this was the state-of-the-art one. We had told Simbisa that it was a matter of one more month and they would be getting the packaging locally.”
Tick tock The clock is ticking.
Manufacturers have been given three months to exhaust stock holdings, and EMA wants weekly reports on the status in that regard.
About 20 ZPPC members have kaylite stocks worth US$1,4 million.
In addition, Planas also holds 30 tonnes of raw materials such as granules, and equipment cannot be reconfigured to manufacture different packaging.
And workers are also feeling the heat.
Last week, employees were only reporting to “clean-up machines” and “pack the existing stock”.
“Now they are packing the stock since we have been allowed to sell the stock that we have. They are (also) wrapping up and cleaning the machines.
“They are just getting rid of the stock, we made a proposal and they allowed that in the next three months we can give them to the places we were selling to,” said Ms Frank.
Manufacturers wanted a one-year reprieve to restructure and are engaging EMA to at least be allowed to manufacture kaylite for export as countries like Zambia and Malawi are understood to be still using the product.
Alternatives and controversy
EMA wants biodegradable material such as cardboard to replace plastic.
In a terse response to questions from this publication last week, EMA chairperson Ambassador Zenzo Nsimbi said “there are quite a number of alternatives to kaylite”.
Planas says it can come up with a recyclable and biodegradable product – but still made of plastic.
“Right now we have an option of paper, but can you imagine how much paper would be used, how many trees … so whatever we are going to use, we are faced with a quandary. We don’t know whether it (paper) is going to be banned in a year’s time or not,” said Ms Frank.
One of the researchers who contributed to the University of Zimbabwe study on polystyrene, Dr Batsirai Chipurura, was quoted recently saying the styrene used in kaylite was “dangerous to the human health as it can cause cancer and disturb other organs in the human body”.
Researchers got kaylite samples from three suppliers in Harare and concluded that all of them contained 97 percent styrene.
Dr Chipurura’s mobile phone went unanswered when contacted for comment last week.
Conversely, there is alternative research that shows that styrene monomer, a crude oil product, is the base material from which polystyrene is produced.
Styrene is a naturally occurring chemical and traces of styrene monomer can be found in foods like strawberries, apples, peaches, beans, fish, and milk and fruit juices.
ZPPC says it should have been approached to make representations to researchers.
“We would have loved to have this guy coming to test them. Which kaylite did he use? We don’t even have the research and someone says it is not ready for public consumption. Why is it not ready for public consumption when we have been banned because of that?” asked Ms Frank.
