Alternatives in place as ban on single-use plastic takes effect next week
DECADES AGO, shoppers used to get their goods packaged mainly in large paper bags until they were phased out for plastic bags.
Now, paper bags are to make a comeback on a large scale to the island as the Government’s ban on certain single-use plastic products and Styrofoam containers takes effect next week.
In fact, several paper and cloth bag manufacturers have created environmentally friendly products that will replace plastic, which has been wreaking havoc on the environment.
BRANDED BAGS
At a Gleaner Editors’ Forum last week, representatives of the National Environmental Planning Agency (NEPA) came armed with examples of bags that will be prohibited and those that will be accepted once the January 1 ban is implemented.
“Many companies have been using non-plastic bags. Branded cloth bags have been popular, and places like pharmacies use paper bags for medication. So for some companies, it will not be so much of a problem,” Ollyvia Anderson, public relations officer at NEPA, explained.
Sixty-year-old Gloria Ellis said that she still recalls the “nice Grace shopping bags” that were available when she was growing up. For 10 cents, shoppers could get that bag as well as unbranded large, brown paper bags.
She could not recall when she stopped seeing them.
“Honestly, it’s about 30 years ago that I last saw a Grace shopping bag. I remember the bags. You could use them over and over. Sometimes they burst, yes. If you had chicken in your groceries, you couldn’t put it at the bottom of the bag because it would burst. But I welcome back the paper bags,” she shared with The Gleaner.
She also recalled other uses of the big paper bags.
“If the bag had a tear and couldn’t carry groceries anymore, they would be used as door mats because they were kind of thick and strong, almost like thin cardboard. People would put it at their doorway