The biggest business opportunities always lie at a time of transition. Kenyans buying mashambas when wazungus were leaving, Kenyans buying stocks in insurance companies when the law stated a certain percentage has to be locally owned, movement from land lines to mobile phones and then moving from brick and mortar banks to mobile money etc.

There is one of those big changes coming round the corner. The ban on plastic bags. Just think about how much money is currently spent on plastic packaging, it must be billions of shillings every year. People will still need to carry stuff home.

Alternatives will be found. I think it is the role of government to kaa ngumu with the law and the role of business people to find alternatives within that law. I think this is the one law that government should absolutely not go back on.

See what happens when governments think only of business:



You can see more images of the Citarum River in Indonesia here:

http://www.austroindones...citarum-river-indonesia

When most people think of pollution they think of kukunia or kukojoa kwa mtoni or small things like that. Even if all the people in the world urinated and flashed their toilets directly in the river the waters would still be usable and very healthy and this is because human or animal waste is biodegradable. By the time human or animal waste has been in the river 24 to 48 hours it has been changed by bacteria and other organisms into something useful for something else. The major killer of the environment is plastics and other petrochemicals. The sooner we ban these stuff the better.

People talk of the industrialization of countries like India but just Google "pollution Ganges River" to see how millions of people have to live so that the country can produce a few billionare industrialists.

Forgive my slowness... Are you suggesting investing in alternative bags like Sisal? Or buying shares in Sisal processing plants or importing such bags or what?

I do not know and neither am I suggesting anything just noting that if the change is real it will create opportunities. It might be sisal, it might be cotton, it might be somebody importing mitumba clothes in bulk and cutting them up to create simple bags. I have no idea but anybody who can make something simple and cheap that meets the requirements will make a killing. Or the law will be killed and nothing at all happens. I am just watching to see what unfolds.

I love ginger and I buy it with all the dirt.I wonder how I will be buying it in a jualaless environment..The easiest/cheapest option will be to wrap it in a newspaper.