If you lived in Kenya, you’d think twice before heading to the store without your stack of reusable shopping bags.

The East African nation has made a big push for its citizens to reduce or eliminate plastic bag usage by making the production, sale or use of any single-use plastic bags punishable by four years in jail or up to a $38,000 fine.

More than 40 other countries already have similar laws prohibiting or taxing plastic bag users including China, Rwanda and the United Kingdom.

One major problem with the plastic bags is they take lots of energy and oil to produce, but are only used once before ending up in a landfill. Since plastics can’t biodegrade, they will last centuries underground. Some estimates say they can take between 500 and 1,000 years to break down.

A third of all plastic bags are also ending up in our oceans. The bags are broken down into micro plastics and consumed by fish, sea birds and other wildlife. At least eight million tons of plastic find their way to the ocean every year — that’s one garbage truck of plastic per minute. The issue is so problematic, that one report estimated that plastics will outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050.

Use plastic bags in Kenya and get time in prison
A young girl carries a torn sack holding the plastic bottles she has scavenged, as she walks amidst garbage and plastic bags at the garbage dump in the Dandora slum of Nairobi, Kenya. A ban on plastic bags came into force in Kenya Monday, Aug. 28, 2017 and those found violating the new regulation could receive large fines or jail terms. AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File

If humans eat the livestock, fish or birds that consume these plastics, we too are consuming the plastics.

In Kenya, as in other countries, the problem isn’t limited to marine environments. Cattle in the Kenyan countryside often graze on rubbish left behind, ingesting large amounts of the polytene bags. Some slaughterhouses reporting finds of 20 plastics bags inside a cow’s digestive tract.

It has taken more than 10 years and three attempts to get the law passed by the Kenyan government, but the law finally stands.

While Kenyan officials are not likely to prosecute individuals to the full extent of the new law, they are likely to use the law to impose heavy fines on the manufactures at the root of the problem.

Only five percent of plastic bags are recycled effectively, so while the law may seem strict, if we want to save our planet from plastic pollution, more countries should follow Kenya’s lead.

Sadly, the United States has not put a ban on plastic bags yet, but some areas are taking matters into their own hands. California and the territories of American Samoa and Puerto Rico have banned disposable bags, as have several other major cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Fransisco and Seattle.

(h/t IFLS)

See also, Garbage disposal don’ts: Items you should never send swirling down the drain. 

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Meghan is a full-time writer exploring the fun facts behind food. She lives a healthy lifestyle but lives for breakfast, dessert and anything with marinara. She’s thrown away just as many meals as she’s proud of.