By JOHNSON KANAMUGIRE

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Dealers are facing a shortage of the much-needed alternative to banned plastic materials in the market which has sparked a rise in the cost of doing business, Rwanda Today has learnt.

The shortage is not only hurting operations of businesses as they have to incur huge costs, but is also leading to a lucrative black market of the banned polythene bags undermining the ongoing campaign to protect the environment.

Local businesses told Rwanda Today that they are facing limited access to packaging materials as what is readily available in the market is just a few options including paper bags, boxes and sacks.

Worse still, they say the recent ban on single use of plastics is affecting small businesses whose business models require use of plastics.

Due to the limiting local manufacturing capacity of alternatives, businesses continue to struggle to find alternative packaging materials.

The government sought to facilitate some businesses with a phased approach for a two-year period that required industrial users to seek special authorization to import and use the outlawed plastics. This largely benefits large companies.

Small businesses say they are finding it hard to get alternatives of locally or affordable rates abroad while for others, they have to adjust their production lines to migrate to solutions that are not available yet.

Exorbitant costs

“For some alternative like glass bottles, we have no such solutions here but much as we know that they are available in other countries, it would imply exorbitant costs importing them and necessitates adjusting the production line entirely which we are not able to do at the moment,” said Thierry Kalisa, a manager at Entreprise Urwibutso told Rwanda Today.

Specifically, local companies are struggling to find replacements for plastic packaging materials such as bottles for water and juices, yogurt cups, plastic straws and spoons.

So far, Entreprise Urwibutso said it has only managed to successfully replace packaging for Akarusho, its banana wine brand which is now packed in metallic canes and boxes.

“There are several materials we are yet to find an alternative for and we have got to depend on the suppliers in case they are able to secure the authorisation. We only apply for authorisation for those that we import ourselves, and it 's time consuming for a factory whose operations have to run daily.”

 Mr Kalisa said. “There are several materials we are yet to find an alternative for and we have got to depend on the suppliers in case they are able to secure the authorisation. We only apply for authorization for those that we import ourselves, and it 's time consuming for a factory whose operations have to run daily.” Mr Kalisa said.

Much as entrepreneurs have increasingly been courted into offering alternatives to banned plastics especially when it comes to packaging materials, their capacity is still limited more than a decade down the road.

They cite heavy dependence on imported raw materials and high cost of production among factors that weigh most of them down.

Besides, their products face a stiff competition from outlawed plastics still smuggled in and sold cheaply through the black market giving legitimate businesses a run for their money.

Brian Ngarambe, proprietor of Bonus Industries Ltd, maker of a range of paper packaging materials sold to supermarkets, pharmacies and bakeries said that despite big unmet demand sales dipped as a big share of the market is served by smugglers of plastics from neighboring countries.

“We are four companies offering alternative packaging solutions in Kigali so far in addition to smaller entrepreneurs, but we are not selling, we are offloaded because of the smuggled plastics,” he said, adding that his factory was operating at less than 150 tonnes per month.

“We are running at 250 tonnes per month because we cannot afford to work overtime to keep the products in stock.”

However, according to Wenceslas Habamungu, manager of Ecoplastic, one of the biggest plastic recycling plants in Kigali observed that the extent of banned plastics on the black market reflected in his plant’s daily supply chain exposed the growing need to facilitate investments to provide solutions in areas that used plastics but have no known replacement to date.

“There is obviously a need for an urgent solution, but as any investment one examines what that solution would cost in terms of setting up the factory and whether the market offers returns in view of competition from old industries still commanding a big share of the market in the region. There has to be ways to offset those risks,” he said.

Rwanda Environment Management Authority chief Juliet Kabera acknowledged that the country still has a gap in offering alternative to plastics bags.