What do Coles, Woolworths, and Al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali militant group Al-Shabaab have in common? They’re all currently in the middle of implementing a plastic bag ban. (And that’s the only thing; please don’t sue us if you’re reading this, Woolworths or Coles.)
According to PJ Media, the group’s radio station, Radio Andalus, broadcast that they would be banning single-use plastic bags in the territories they control because the discarded bags “pose a serious threat to the well-being of humans and animals alike.”
In addition to banning plastic bags, the group also issued an immediate ban on the logging of indigenous trees. As PJ Media points out, this commitment to environmentalism rings somewhat hollow given that they have been funding activities via the ivory trade for a long, long time.
BBC‘s coverage of the ban noted that it is currently unclear just how they will go about implementing the ban but that because of “widespread fear of the group’s use of violence“, people usually do what they tell them to do.
