Shoppers not giving up on plastic bags despite pollution hazard
From centre pages
the solid waste management system leaves much to be desired as waste is neither sorted nor recycled on a large scale.
According to the draft National Integrated Solid Waste Management Strategy, in 2010, plastics, a non-biodegradable product, accounted for 14.2% of matter within Georgetown’s waste streams, statistics based on a study done by Hydroplan and CEMCO Inc.
Of that amount, 9.7% was attributed to bags and other plastic containers, and 2.8% to plastic bottles.
The strategy lists “reduce plastic bag consumption” under its goals.
“We at Mattai’s here are willing to experience and undertake any programme or process that the EPA or government has to do regarding the shopping bags, because we are 100% sure that we can basically work around the bags,” Mattai said, while opining that once consumers are left with no alternative, they will have no choice but to go the eco-friendly route.
Supermarket drive
On Earth Day, celebrated on April 22nd, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partnered with major supermarkets to raise awareness of the need to end plastic pollution.
EPA Environmental Officer Whoopi Liverpool related to Stabroek News that the drive was intended to “encourage persons to start changing their attitudes towards the environment as it relates to plastic pollution.” She further disclosed that the drive would also allow the entity to collect data on the public’s response to such an initiative, so that trends could be analysed.
She noted that it is recognised that shopping bags account for a significant portion of disposable plastics globally and added that because supermarkets are one of the major providers of those bags, the decision was made to target these businesses.
Customers were encouraged on Earth Day to take their own reusable bags to shopping centres, instead of opting for plastic shopping bags. Bags were also distributed at the featured branches.
The drive included 10 supermarkets—four Bounty stores, Distribution Services Limited, Budget Supermarket, Survival Supermarket, Mattai’s Supermarket, Real Value and the Massy Supermarket.
“The supermarkets that have taken part, they have demonstrated their interest in addressing the problem, they have also in the past tried their own initiatives to tackle the problem, where they’ve distributed their own reusable bags to customers,” Liverpool related.
“This drive to combat plastic pollution, it continues all the way into World Environment Day, which is on June 5th. So we’re hoping to pursue some other initiatives leading up to World Environment Day, so whatever data we collect, we’ll try to see how we can do comparisons in the future to understand how the public is responding to this whole drive,” said Liverpool.
On April 23rd, during the official launch of Guyana’s Earth Day activities at State House, Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced that the Department of the Environment is working on a proposal that will include, among other things, a ban on single-use plastics in Guyana.
The document is expected to be taken to Cabinet shortly.