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(CNS): The Cayman Islands government is amending customs regulations to ban the import of large quantities of single-use plastics. Officials from the Department of Sustainable Development said small plastic shopping bags, plastic straws, plastic stirrers, plastic chopsticks, sky lanterns, polystyrene cups and clamshell food containers are expected to be added to the list of banned items.
The fight to ban single-use plastics has been a long one, and it’s been made possible in large part by Plastic Free Cayman Islands.
The nonprofit, founded by Claire Hughes, has cleaned tens of thousands of pounds of plastic from Cayman’s beaches over the past seven years and works with other environmental groups, such as Protecting our futurewhich lobbied hard for the ban and took years to finalize.
According to a press release, the Cabinet recently approved further drafting instructions for the Customs Tariff Code (Revised Version, 2023) to remove some plastics from the tariff list and include them in the banned list. It has been nearly a year since the then Prime Minister took office. Wayne Panton announced The ban was planned to be implemented through an injunction. However, the CIG now believes that it would be more effective to restrict these goods through legislative amendments to the Customs Tariff Act.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that plastic party balloons and their balloon poles are particularly harmful to the marine environment, the government has decided not to ban them due to the lack of sustainable alternatives.
Minister of Sustainability and Climate Resilience Katherine Ebanks-Wilks said the proposal was an important step forward in efforts to protect the environment.
“The single-use plastic items we found are a significant contributor to global plastic pollution and environmental degradation,” she said. “While many of these items wash up on our shores as litter from other jurisdictions, by banning the import of these items we are proactively protecting our natural resources and prioritizing Cayman’s resilience.”
Officials say limiting single-use plastics is only part of reducing their impact on the environment, and proper waste management is essential to promoting cleaner, greener communities. However, progress on the goal of addressing Cayman’s looming waste crisis remains stagnant, with officials refusing to respond to CNS questions about the status of government’s negotiations with Dart over the proposed ReGen project, which CNS understands has completely gone off the rails.
Currently, residents can only recycle a limited amount of plastic, and there are many single-use items that are not on the banned list that cannot be recycled, such as soda and beer packaging plastic boxes, cutlery and food packaging.
Officials stated: “The Cayman Islands Government remains committed to advancing environmental protection efforts and will continue to work with stakeholders to achieve shared sustainable development goals.” However, there is little evidence that the CIG has seriously attempted to implement truly sustainable policies.
Minister of Health and Wellness Sabrina Turner noted that her department cannot advocate for the health of the nation without talking about the health of the environment.
“We cannot talk about environmental health without facing up to the reality of the waste we generate. Now, we all know that there is limited space in landfills. A single-use plastic ban is one of the solutions the government is considering to address our collective waste problem, and our success as a country depends equally, if not more, on individual behaviours and practices around reducing, reusing and recycling,” she said.
For years, the government has said it is promoting an inverted rubbish pyramid to manage the waste generated locally, but has failed to launch any kind of campaign to encourage people to consume less or reuse previously discarded items. Less than 3% of the waste generated in the Cayman Islands is recycled, and the recent end of glass recycling has made the situation worse.
Turner said a ban on certain plastics will require everyone to make changes that may sometimes feel inconvenient. “But when we are fighting to protect the things and people we love, inconvenience is not even a thought, let alone a deterrent. Let’s continue to work together towards our common goal of protecting Cayman now and in the future,” she added.
Businesses with questions or feedback can contact the Sustainability and Climate Adaptation Department sustainability@gov.ky.
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