Sustainable management of plastic bags in Jordan

Other Title(s)

الإدارة المستدامة للأكياس البلاستيكية في الأردن

Dissertant

Ansour, Lina Mahmud

Thesis advisor

Saidan, Mutasim

Comitee Members

al-Kilani, Muhammad Husayn
al-Hayik, Bassam Usamah
al-Baali, Abd al-Ghani

University

Princess Sumaya University for Technology

Faculty

King Talal School of Business Technology

Department

Department Management Information Systems

University Country

Jordan

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2010

English Abstract

Plastic bags are used widely all over the world for carrying merchandise from retail outlets, grocery and take away food to clothing and hardware.

Consumers in Jordan use approximately 3 billion plastic bags a year that have negative environmental impacts starts from the extraction or transportation of raw materials to manufacturing, transportation, use and disposal.

Manufacturing of plastic bags consume large quantity of energy and raw materials and produces large amount of pollutants.

They need 1, 440, 000 GJ (gega joules) of energy and produce 1, 650, 000 ton of atmospheric pollutants that contribute in acid rain and smog and about 150 ton of waterborne.

They also affect the livestock by 2.5 % of 2.5 million sheep and many fewer goats and cattle which are badly affected with weight loss due to blockage of the digestion system with plastic.

In addition to block sewers and water ways at which flies and insects cause a serious health problems.

Many scenarios have been proposed and evaluated with respect to different variant including impacts on environment, business, consumer and waste.

Three main scenarios were evaluated to decide which may be the most applicable and the most acceptable one in Jordan ; Scenario 1 : ban on plastic bags; this command and control approach will force about 50 % of the factories to export their plastic bags products for the neighbor countries, while the rest of the factories are expected to reduce the manufacturing and distribution of the plastic bags by 48% as a result of the ban.

The problem with this option is that there are no real substitutes of plastic bags in Jordan, this will increase the need to import biodegradable or canvas bags which make them costly alternatives and there is no factories to produce paper bags in large quantities to replace the need of plastic bags in Jordan's market, even though it is not approved to be an environmental friendly option.

Scenario 2 : partial ban of the plastic bags that aim to reduce the littering problem by banning the production and distribution of the bags below a specific size or thickness.

It is estimated that this option would reduce the impacts by about 60 % since the amount of small and thin bags used in Jordan forms 60 %.

This option will require the government to set a policy to specify the minimum size or thickness that is allowed for use.

Scenario 3 : imposition of an environmental levy which is expected to reduce the use of plastic bags by 70 % in addition to generating revenues that could be used for supporting environmental projects or environmental services.

The proposed options were compared to each other from an environmental perspective and economic perspective.

Environmentally the imposition of the levy results in decreasing atmospheric pollutants, energy consumption and impacts on business as well.

Economically the total abatement cost of the tax is less than that in the case of the ban which makes it more profitable to apply the third scenario and impose the levy to end the free distribution of the plastic bags.

Main Subjects

Earth Sciences, Water and Environment

Topics

• Management
• Jordan
• Environmental aspects
• Plastic bags

No. of Pages

70

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-305129