The Greenpeace organisation has urged the South African Government to ramp up efforts to eradicate single-use plastics like many other African countries already have.
This, after hundreds of thousands of plastic nurdles recently washed up on beaches in the Garden Route as well as in Cape Town, destroying the coastline.
These nurdles are plastic pellets, used in the manufacturing of plastic products for everyday use, such as plastic bottles and packaging materials.
These nurdles are also a threat to marine life as they mistake it as a food source which in turn will block their digestive systems leaving them to starve to death.
A spokesperson for Greenpeace Africa, Chris Vlavianos, says three years ago, 40 tonnes of plastic nurdles, were scattered across Kwazulu Natal which took three months to clean up.
He says the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries can no longer dance around the issue.
On the African continent, Rwanda has banned single-use plastic as far back as 2008 with Kenya implementing their ban last year.
Dozens of other African countries are in the process to follow suit.
