… Whitepaper for Cabinet within a week

A DOCUMENT proposing a ban on single-use plastic will be placed before Cabinet for consideration, Minister of State Joseph Harmon disclosed on Monday during an event to mark Earth Day 2018 at State House under the theme ‘End plastic pollution’.

According to the State Minister, who has portfolio responsibility for the environment, “the solid piece of document” will be presented to Cabinet within a week. “It is a document that is intended to, in the short term, reduce the importation, use of single-use plastic items with the expectation that by 2021 we will have a full ban of single-use plastics in the country which includes plastic bags,” Director of the Department of the Environment Ndibi Schwiers explained to the Guyana Chronicle on the sideline of the opening ceremony.

The document was completed by the Department of Environment last week and presented to Minister Harmon. Technical officers from the department are expected to accompany Minister Harmon to Cabinet when the proposal will be deliberated upon. Stating that the world has become inundated with plastic, Minister Harmon said the effect of poor waste disposal management is taking a toll on ecosystems that are essential to the wellbeing of the planet.

It is estimated that more than 8.3 billion tonnes of virgin plastic have been produced to date. According to Science Magazine, if current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste will be in landfills or the natural environment by 2050, and the negative impacts of such pollution are already being felt. It is estimated that 86 per cent of all sea turtle species, 44 per cent of all seabird species and 43 per cent of all marine mammal species are being affected.

Governments, Minister Harmon said, are now being urged to demonstrate political will to end single-use plastic. Guyana has not escaped the negative effects of plastic pollution, and according to the Minister of State, the Government under the leadership of President David Granger has been taking steps to curtail the use of plastic receptacles.

It was pointed out that in January 2017, Section 7A (1) of the Customs Act Chapter 82:01 was amended to incorporate an environmental levy of $10, which is applied to all non-returnable bottles of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages or water. It took effect from February 1, 2017.

“This levy was not primarily a revenue collection initiative but a measure to encourage recycling of plastics and to reduce its use,” Minister Harmon explained.

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that a number of supermarkets have agreed to minimise the use of plastic bags. According to the State Minister, six of the leading supermarkets in Georgetown – Bounty Farm, Mattai’s, Survival, Budget and Distribution Services Limited and Massy – have signed onto this initiative.
“These institutions have agreed to use boxes, reusable bags and biodegradable bags instead of plastic bags to pack their customers goods. They also agreed to urge their customers to walk with their bags so as to lessen the use of plastic bags,” Minister Harmon further explained.

He said even as the Government, in keeping with President Granger’s vision forges ahead with the Green State Development Strategy, citizens must play their role and change their consumption and waste disposal patterns to combat plastic pollution.

POLLUTION
In painting a vivid picture of the situation, the Director of the Department of Environment pointed out that globally nearly 2 million single-use plastic bags are distributed worldwide every minute while one million plastic bottles are bought every minute across the world. Of the plastic bags and bottles produced the majority ends up in landfills or in the oceans.

In Guyana, plastic pollution from single-use plastic bags and other plastic containers constitutes between 10 and 13 per cent of the country’s waste, Schwiers pointed out while noting that there is little attempt to recycle plastic materials. Failure to recycle plastic bags and containers, and poor disposal oftentimes result in pollution – a contributing factor of flooding in this part of the world. But flooding is not the only issue, Schwiers explained that once these plastic materials enter the drains, rivers and oceans they affect marine life.

“One million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from the ingestion of plastics in our oceans. Scientists have recently calculated that people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year,” Schwiers noted. As such, she said it is of little surprise that countries have already begun to take action against plastic pollution.

Rwanda, Bangladesh, China, and Ireland are among countries that have introduced bans on the use of single-use plastic bags. France has gone one step further, Schwiers noted, explaining that it has not only banned the single-use plastic bags but has banned all plastic cups, cutlery and plates with effect from 2020.

Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, who is also responsible for Tourism and UNDP Representative Mikiko Tanaka also spoke of the negative effects misuse and the discriminatory dumping of plastic bags and containers have on the environment.

Marian Academy Environmental Club’s message in a cultural piece was forthright. The club called for end of plastic bags and containers due to their harmful impact on the environment. Earth Day 2018 was observed on Sunday April 22, 2018.