Supermarket owners urged to support use of reusable bags
Is a ban on use of plastics the lasting solution?
By Pauline Waruguru
Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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| A cross-section of supermarket representatives and owners as well as members of the Nevis Conservation Historical Conservation Society |
CHARLESTOWN, Nevis - THE General Manager [GM] of Nevis Solid Waste Management, Carlin Lawrence, met with a number of supermarket owners and respresentatives yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce and urged them to partner with the authority to promote the use of reusable bags in place of plastic bags.
Also present were members of the Nevis Historical Conservation Society (NHCS).
While supermarket owners support the initiative and are willing to complement efforts being made by the Authority to popularise reusable bags, a cross-section of them said a ban on the use of plastic bags may be the lasting solution. They also suggested the use of biodegradable bags.
The supermarket owners also said an aggressive public awareness campaign should be in place to mobilise users of plastic bags to be committed to using reusable bags, thus making Nevis “green”.
Lawrence said an estimated 30 000 bags per week are used on the island. “At the landfill, the bags take up a lot of space. Sometimes
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| Calyn Lawrence, General Manager Nevis Solid Waste Management Authority, holding a reusable bag |
the bags are thrown into the sea and eaten up by marine life,” she said and called on all supermarket owners on the island to support the use of reusable bags.
The GM informed the gathering that she has been consulting with reusable bags suppliers and comparing prices. She presented samples of some of the bags to the supermarket owners and said the Authority would within 60 to 90 days saturate supermarkets with them.
Lawrence thanked the NHCS for its active role in supporting the Authority to protect Nevis’ environment. NHCS worked closely with the Authority to help source a grant from CIDA that will enable the Authority to purchase a tyre byrer - a machine that used to compress tyres and plastics.
Lawrence said the Nevis Island Administration also gave the Authority an EC$12 000 grant towards the purchasing of the equipment.
Addressing the issue on how committed shoppers would be to returning reusable bags, Lawrence said a massive awareness campaign is being planned. She said legislation was a long term solution and called on supermarket owners to rally behind the Authority to begin the first step of reducing the use of plastic bags.
A power point presentation made by US Peace Corps member Ailyson Hakala highlighted the advantages of reusable bags.
Hakala said reducing use of plastic bags reduces the importation of plastic and money would be saved as the demand for plastic bags would decrease. She noted that the use of reusable bags protects the marine environment and species and reduces litter. She also said reusable bags were easy substitutes for needless trash.
~~Adz:Left~~ LAccording to Planet Ark, an international environmental group, worldwide, about 100 000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine animals are killed by plastic bags each year.
Last September, more than 354 000 bags - most of them plastic - were collected during an international cleanup of costal areas in the United States and 100 other countries, according to the Ocean Conservancy.
The bags were the fifth most common item of debris found on beaches.
Reusable bags campaigners report that there is a growing international movement to ban or discourage the use of plastic bags because of their environmental effects. Countries from Ireland to Australia are cracking down on the bags and action is beginning to stir in the United States.
In Manitoba, Canada a new bylaw prevents retailers from selling or distributing the single use plastic bag.
Although plastic bags didn’t come into widespread use until the early 1980s, environmental groups estimate that 500 billion to one trillion bags are now used worldwide every year.
Critics of the bags say they use up natural resources, consume energy to manufacture, create litter, choke marine life and add to landfill waste.
“Every time we use a new plastic bag they go and get more petroleum from the Middle East and bring it over in tankers,” said Stephanie Barger, Executive Director of Earth Resource Foundation in Costa Mesa, Calif. “We are extracting and destroying the Earth to use a plastic bag for 10 minutes.”
Donna Dempsey, Executive Director of the Film and Bag Federation, a trade association for the plastic bag industry, said the plastics industry took a “proactive stance” by working with retailers to encourage greater recycling, rather than “putting on taxes to address the problem.
The tax proposals are loosely modelled on Ireland’s “PlasTax”, a levy of about 20 cents that retail customers have had to pay for each plastic bag since March 2002. The use of plastic bags in Ireland dropped more than 90 percent following imposition of the tax, and the government has raised millions of dollars for recycling programmes.
Similar legislation was introduced in Scotland last month and is being discussed for the rest of the United Kingdom.
Consumers seem agreeable to giving up the bags, Claire Wilton, a senior waste campaigner at Greenpeace-UK is quoted on a website.
“There certainly hasn’t been an angry uprising of shoppers (in Ireland) saying we want our bags for free,” Wilton said. “I think a lot of people recognise they are wasteful. That’s why they try to save them to use again, although they often forget to bring them with them when they shop.”
In Australia, about 90 percent of retailers have signed up with the government’s voluntary programme to reduce plastic bag use. A law that went into effect last year in Taiwan requires restaurants, supermarkets and convenience stores to charge customers for plastic bags and utensils. It has resulted in a 69 percent drop in use of plastic products, according to news reports.
