Tourists visiting Tanzania are being urged to remove plastic bags from their luggage after the East African nation implemented a ban aimed at tackling pollution and protecting the environment.

Airline passengers have been told to remove the non-recyclable plastic carriers before arriving – although “ziplock” bags used as part of airport security procedures are still permitted.

Advice issued by the Foreign Office for the 75,000 British visitors to Tanzania each year states travellers "may be asked to surrender plastic bags on arrival".

Tanzania joins a growing list of countries around the world which have implemented a bag ban, with Africa often leading the way in tackling plastic waste.

The ban, which comes into effect on 1 June, targets all plastic bags “imported, exported, manufactured, sold, stored, supplied and used”.

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife. Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding. AFP/Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life. EPA Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii. Gabriella Levine/Flickr Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta. Reuters Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches. EPA

Tanzania has toyed with a blanket ban in the past, having outlawed plastic bags on the semi-autonomous Zanzibar islands in 2006 and announced proposals for a country-wide ban in 2015.

Neighbouring Kenya banned plastic bags in 2017, with those caught manufacturing or carrying the single use items facing up to four years in prison or a fine.

Rwanda, South Africa and Eritrea are among the more than 30 sub-Saharan African nations to have their own plastic bag bans; the former insists on bag searches for travellers entering the country.

Before Mauritania’s ban was implemented in 2013, around three-quarters of all the cattle and sheep killed in the capital, Nouakchoot, were said to have died from eating plastic waste.

Bangladesh was the first country to implement a ban in 2002, followed by China, the Netherlands, Israel, Morocco and Albania, among others.

But the scope of each nation’s ban differs. In China, which lacks a blanket ban, bags less than 0.025mm thick are outlawed and shops and food markets are banned from handing out free bags.

In Botswana, the government reversed a decision to ban plastic bags barely two weeks after it was implemented last November after complaints from manufacturers that their views had not been taken into consideration.

It comes as two major Asian economies revealed plans to return plastic waste shipped from overseas.

Malaysia last year became the leading alternative destination for plastic after China banned imports of such waste, disrupting the flow of more than seven million tonnes a year.

Most of the plastic scrap coming into the country is contaminated and low-quality plastic from developed countries that is non-recyclable.

Plastic waste found littering sea floor during deepest ever ocean dive

Now, Kuala Lumpur has begun sending back the waste to its country of origin, said Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia's environment minister.

And Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his government to hire a private shipping company to send 69 containers of rubbish back to Canada and leave them within its territorial waters if it refuses to accept the waste.

Consecutive British governments have made efforts to reduce plastic waste, including in 2015 when the then-deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, revealed plans for a 5p plastic bag levy that was subsequently increased to 10p. Figures show the sale of plastic bags fell by 86 per cent since the 5p charge was introduced in the UK.

In 2014 seven major retailers issued 7.6 billion single-use bags but the number was down to just over a billion in 2017-18.

On Wednesday, the environment secretary said plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds would be banned in England from next year to tackle pollution.

Michael Gove confirmed a ban on the supply of the items from April 2020 after a consultation revealed "overwhelming" public support for the move.

Exemptions will allow those who need to use plastic straws for medical reasons or a disability to buy them from registered pharmacies or request them in restaurants, pubs and bars, and the use of plastic-stemmed cotton buds for medical and scientific purposes.