Creeping plastics?
Local stakeholders urge attentiveness to plastics ban
WITH SIGHTINGS of single-use plastic bags in the country over the holidays has come the call for sustained vigilance to keep those plastics and the associated pollution and compromised ecosystems in check.
“The ‘creeping re-entry’ may be due to increased commercial activity over Christmas; I really have no evidence of a trend to confirm same. However, merchants and others will always seek to use cheaper options and will go back to importing banned items if they think they can get away with it,” said Prof Mona Webber, head of the Centre for Marine Sciences at The University of the West Indies.
“The response required is both on the side of the public by reporting where they see breaches and on the side of the regulatory agency, to investigate and prosecute, as well as make their action public,” added the marine scientist.
Jamaica’s ban on single-use plastics went into effect on January 1, 2019, making it illegal for any person “to manufacture or use any single-use plastic in commercial quantities”, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (Plastic Packaging Materials Prohibition) Order 2018.
Further, the Trade (Plastic Packaging Materials Prohibition) Order 2018 stipulates that “no person shall import or distribute any single-use plastic in commercial quantities”.
To disobey the Natural Resources Conservation Authority Order is to risk a fine not exceeding $50,000 or imprisonment of up to two years. To breach the Trade Order is to risk a fine of up to $2 million or as much as two years behind bars.
In October last year, the National Environment and Planning Agency reported that a dozen businesses in St James had been charged for breaches under the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (Plastic Packaging Materials Prohibition) Order, 2018.
The charges were reportedly brought because “on varying days in September 2022, the businesses were observed in possession of commercial quantities of drinking straws attached to juice or drink boxes and single-use plastic bags made wholly or in part of polyethylene or polypropylene plastic with dimensions 24x24 inches, with thickness less than 2.5 mils”.
Eleanor Jones, who heads Environmental Solutions Limited, has agreed with Webber on the need for reporting and enforcement to preserve the gains from the ban. This, she said, must be accompanied by ongoing communication that reminds the public of what is stipulated under law.
“That is how these things are sustained. You have to keep the message out there. People need a reminder and a reminder in the context of why it was there to begin with,” she noted.
At the same time, Jones said the country must also give attention to plastic bottles, which, while not banned, continue to grow in numbers.
“While we are focused on (singleuse) plastic bags (as well as plastic straws and Styrofoam containers), we also need to look at the volume of plastic bottles; it is horrendous the amount that is being produced. We need to get it out of the waste stream,” she said.
A deposit refund scheme, which has been under ongoing discussion, Jones maintained, can form a part of the solution.
“It really needs to be pushed … there are some things that are just needed. There is so much that is made out of plastics and you say to yourself, ‘well, we can’t ban everything’. You have initiatives to try and collect but it is not enough. If we have enough people incentivised to do it (as through a deposit refund scheme) then that would help to remove it from the waste stream,” the ESL principal noted.
“We need to look (therefore) at how we work with communities because we can’t continue to think that people will pick up after us,” she added.
Webber attested to the need to address the burgeoning number of plastic bottles.
“Plastic bottles continue to dominate the waste that ends up in the mangroves and has been so since the plastic bag ban and this is where we tend to see early evidence of changes in proportions of plastics in the waste stream,” she noted.