Juggling Bread, Bananas, Policy

Juggling Bread, Bananas, Policy

Feb 14 , 2026. By Kidist Yidnekachew ( Kidist Yidnekachew is interested in art, human nature and behaviour. She has studied psychology, journalism and communications and can be reached at (kaymina21@gmail.com) )

A week into the plastic bag ban, the absence of festals is reshaping daily errands. The EPA’s data shows these bags make up 46pc of plastic waste. Still, shoppers are left buying costly reusable bags or carrying goods loosely. Vendors rarely provide paper or other wrapping options. The gap between environmental policy and service adaptation has become visible.

It has been just over a week since the countrywide ban on single-use plastic bags officially took effect here in Ethiopia, and if I’m being honest, the transition has felt less like an environmental revolution and more like a messy, uncoordinated breakup.

For decades, those thin, crinkling "festals" were the silent partners of our daily existence. We didn’t just use them to carry groceries; we used them to survive. They were temporary plates when eating on the go, makeshift wipes when we ran out of tissues, and the ultimate waterproof layer for anything that needed protection.

Suddenly, that multi-tool of the masses has been snatched away, and we are all left standing in the middle of the market, literally and figuratively empty-handed. It makes you wonder how we ever lived our lives without them. I understand the environmental argument; the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) points out that plastic bags make up a staggering 46pc of the plastic waste cluttering our streets and clogging our drainage systems. I get that the soil doesn’t want to digest polyethene for the next few hundred years. But from a personal perspective, I wish we had found a way to dispose of them differently, rather than an outright ban that feels like it’s punishing the consumer.

The timing couldn’t be worse, either. We are already wrestling with inflation that makes every trip to the store feel like a financial combat mission. In the "old world," which apparently was only a few days ago, when you bought a loaf of bread, the plastic bag was a given. It was a free courtesy. Now, the burden of "carrying" has shifted entirely to our wallets. If you don't bring your own bag, you’re forced to buy one. And let’s talk about those "eco-friendly" non-woven or canvas bags. They aren’t exactly cheap. I’ve seen them going for anywhere from 40 to 100 Br.

For a family already struggling to keep up with the rising cost of teff or oil, adding the cost of a bag to every transaction feels like an added tax on existence. Then there is the psychological toll of being a forgetful human being. I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of person who leaves my keys in the door and my phone on charge and look for it for 10mins.

Expecting us to remember to bring a reusable bag every single time we step out for a quick errand is a tall order. What ends up happening is a cycle of shame and expense: you get to the shop, realise your nice canvas bag is sitting on the kitchen counter, and you end up buying another expensive non-woven bag just to get your stuff home. Pretty soon, we’re all going to have a closet full of fifty "reusable" bags that we paid a premium for, which seems to defeat the purpose of reducing waste. It’s just a lot of extra mental labor for a society already under a lot of pressure.

What has made me the angriest, however, isn’t the law itself; it’s the way service providers have reacted. It feels like they’ve decided that since plastic is illegal, their responsibility to provide packaging has simply evaporated. I went to buy bananas the other day, and because I had (predictably) forgotten my bag, the vendor just handed me the bunch as-is. No paper, no string, nothing. I stood there looking at him, waiting for the "how do I carry this?" solution, and he just shrugged. I was genuinely surprised. You can’t just expect customers to walk into every shop bearing their own specialised containers for every type of produce.

As service providers, they have a responsibility to adapt. They used to give us plastic bags because it was part of the service. Now that the rules have changed, they should be offering paper bags or even old-school newspaper wraps. It’s not like we’re asking for luxury gift wrapping; we just need a way to get the product from Point A to Point B without it rolling down the street. The EPA is threatening individuals with fines between 2,000 and 5,000 Br just for possessing these bags, which is a massive amount of money for most people. And also, up to 200,000 Br for those who were found selling or distributing these plastic bags. If the government is going to be that strict with us, they should be just as strict about ensuring businesses provide viable alternatives.

The meat market is perhaps the best example of how poorly this was thought through. If you buy meat now, especially if it is chopped into small pieces or minced, it often gets wrapped in thin paper that immediately turns into a soggy mess. By the time you get home, the paper is practically fused to the meat. It’s unhygienic and frustrating to peel off. I actually proposed to my butcher that he use cling wrap since, as far as I can tell, thin film wrap isn't part of the "shopping bag" ban but he just waved me off, saying it was too expensive. But is it? Wouldn't most customers happily pay an extra five or ten birr for their meat to be packaged properly, rather than being expected to bring a Tupperware container to the butcher every Tuesday?

We all want a cleaner Ethiopia. None of us want to see our beautiful landscape littered with blue and white plastic shreds. But a transition this big requires more than just a "stop it or we’ll fine you" approach. It requires a bit of empathy for the consumer who is already stretched thin. We need a middle ground; a place where the environment is protected, but the simple act of buying a loaf of bread doesn't become a logistical nightmare or a financial burden. Until then, I’ll be the one awkwardly juggling loose bananas and a loaf of bread, trying to figure out how we ended up here so fast.

PUBLISHED ON Feb 14,2026 [ VOL 26 , NO 1346]