Editor,RE: "Let’s not be shortsighted in debate on ban of plastic bag” (The New Times, March 14).

If it is difficult to institute a total ban on plastic bags, it will be even more difficult to successfully enforce it. Why not think about recycling instead?The other day I was watching a documentary about the difficulties African countries face in getting rid of plastic bags. Senegal was being used as a case study. From what I saw, Senegal had faced huge problems with plastic bags than Rwanda before we banned them.Now some people have begun creating recycling industries producing other plastic products from the same plastics that were left in landfill or scattered everywhere. One of their products I saw was beer crates.The list of products that can be made from recycled plastic is endless. So, instead of banning plastic bags, can’t we instead allow our manufacturers to use recycled plastics to produce some products for us without spending our hard-earned foreign exchange on importing such raw materials?Do we need to ban local raw materials that could help us in our strides towards industrialization?Recycling plays a big role in Western countries too.Seth