Project Management Coordination Unit, Thora Lorde, look on. (C. Pitt/BGIS)
Barbados is moving full steam ahead to drastically reduce the effect of plastics on the environment, over the next 10 years, through the National Action Plan to End Plastics Pollution, which was launched yesterday at Warrens Tower II.
Minister of the Environment and National Beautification, Green and Blue Economy, Adrian Forde, who addressed the launch, gave the assurance that legislation on single-use, petrol based plastics was coming.
He disclosed that approximately “500 tons of single-use plastics are sold every month, and they are distributed not only into our landfills but, unfortunately, across the length and breadth of our country”.
The National Action Plan to End Plastics Pollution incorporates five key policy interventions, which are considered to have maximum impact in the fight against plastics pollution.
These key strategies involve the phasing out of single-use plastic bottles, by integrating the installation of water refill points; gradually eliminating single-use plastic bags; and the removal of other single-use plastic items, such as takeaway food containers, straws, and lids.
They also include the implementation of ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’, which will drive source separation when national recycling is started, and the use of downstream measures, such as enhanced on-the-go and bulk waste collections, together with improved enforcement against illegal dumping and littering.
In the environmental, health battle against plastics, Minister Forde also encouraged “a sense of ownership of our country to ensure that we do the right thing for other generations to come”.