Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 3 January 2020
Mexico City plastic bag ban to take residents back in time

By DIEGO DELGADO Daniel Loredo says he is
Associated Press planning to hoard his last
MEXICO CITY (AP) — For remaining plastic shopping
centuries, Mexico City resi- bags precisely for that pur-
dents brought warm tortillas pose. But he and his room-
home in reusable cloths or mates have already taken
woven straw baskets, and steps to build up a supply
toted others foods in coni- of reusable bags and make
cal rolls of paper, "ayate" sure whoever goes to the
mesh or net bags, or even grocery store is carrying a
string bundles. few. But for poorer city resi-
People in Mexico's massive dents, forgetting to do so
capital city may have to re- even one day could carry
turn to those old ways start- a high price in a country
ing Wednesday, when a where the 75-cent reusable
new law takes effect ban- bag costs the equivalent of
ning the plastic bags that an hour's worth of the mini-
became ubiquitous over mum wage.
the last 30 years. "I think this will be a chal-
Some say they are ready lenge, because these bags
and willing, and grocery represent an additional
stores are promising to pro- cost, and maybe not ev-
mote reusable synthetic A young man carries a new plastic bag, suddenly a rare sight on the streets of the capital as a ban eryone can bear that cost
fiber bags, but others are on plastic bags took effect with the new year, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. quite as easily," Loredo
struggling to get their minds Associated Press said.
around how the ban will goods. Under the new residents, Gallardo Chávez truck) directly in garbage Aldimir Torres, the leader of
work in practice. law, grocery stores will be thinks protecting the envi- cans." the country's Plastic Indus-
"We have a very rich his- fined if they give out plastic ronment is "very good." But But that is complicated giv- try Chamber, called the
tory in ways to wrap things," bags. Most will offer reus- plastic bags in Mexico City en the city's stubborn water new law "cheap populism,"
said Claudia Hernández, able shopping bags made are almost never really sin- shortages. It's all very well to noting that it was drawn up
the city's director of envi- of thick plastic fiber, usually gle-use: most city residents tell city residents not to line without having clear guide-
ronmental awareness. "We selling them for around 75 have bought garbage their trash cans with plastic lines about what kind of
are finding that people are cents. cans and waste paper bags, but washing out a "compostable" bags would
returning to baskets, to cu- "They are not giving them baskets just the right size to kitchen receptacle every still be allowed.
curuchos," she said, refer- away, they are selling be lined with supermarket couple of days after use The law leaves the door
ring to cone-shaped rolls of them, and that is what I bags. And the bags are because it doesn't have a open to using plastic bags
paper once used to wrap don't agree with," said city commonly used to clean plastic liner will takes its toll "for reasons of hygiene,"
loose bulk goods like nuts, subway worker Ernesto Gal- up after dogs on sidewalks. on water supplies. presumably for items like
chips or seeds. lardo Chávez, who won- "We use the bags for gar- Not to mention the wide- deli meats or cheese. It also
Some Mexico City residents ders what will happen if bage, to separate it into or- spread habit of tossing allows for bags that biode-
still use traditional ayate he goes grocery shopping ganic and inorganic, and used toilet paper into grade very quickly, but sets
bags, or tortilla towels or after Jan. 1 and forgets to then take it out to the gar- wastepaper baskets to no specific standards for
baskets, and many — es- bring his reusable bags. bage truck," he notes. spare the strain on many them.
pecially the elderly — pull "Just imagine, I forget my Hernández, the environ- homes' aged and insuffi- "This was a law that was
two-wheeled, folding bag and I buy a lot of stuff," ment official, said people cient plumbing. Used toi- copied and put together
shopping baskets through said Gallardo Chávez. should get out of the habit let paper is not the kind in a rush, without consult-
grocery stores. Some mer- "How do I carry it all, if of putting their garbage of thing you can turn over ing people who really know
chants still use old sardine they don't give you bags in plastic bags. "They can loose to the trash collector. about this issue," Torres
cans to measure out bulk anymore?" Like most city take it out (to the garbage Data analysis specialist said.q

Panama Canal marks 20 years of US handover amid water crisis

anniversary Tuesday of the find a new source of water "The rainfall over the ca-
turnover of the Panama for the locks. The anniver- nal watershed is just not
Canal, now amid a water sary of the Dec. 31, 1999, enough to keep the ex-
crisis that threatens the vi- handover comes amid panded canal operating,
ability of the waterway. months of water-depth much less any further ex-
Declining rainfall and ris- restrictions that limit what pansion," said analyst and
ing temperatures have the cargo ships using the hydroelectric dam expert
reduced the level of waterway can carry. José Isabel Blandón. "Pan-
freshwater lakes that fill Changes in climate — ama has to start looking at
the locks of the Panama and a recent expansion this problem, because the
Canal and allow boats to to allow bigger ships to lakes also provide drink-
transit between the Pacif- pass — may have finally ing water for two million
In this Dec. 6, 2019 photo, a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter ic and the Atlantic. caught up with the canal's people." It could affect
flies over the Pacific side of the Panama Canal as it travels to While Panama has been 105-year-old design, in the competitiveness of the
the Darien province to provide a humanitarian assistance in successful at running — which the artificial Gatun canal. Ricaurte Vásquez,
Panama. and expanding — the ca- Lake functions as part of who heads the canal
Associated Press
nal after the U.S. handed the ship passage and also administration, said the
By JUAN ZAMORANO PANAMA CITY (AP) — Pan- over control, it now must provides drinking water for coming dry season could
Associated Press ama marked the 20-year face a new challenge: to about half the country. prove a test.q