BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC—Barbados has launched a significant initiative, the National Action Plan to End Plastics Pollution. This plan indicates that legislation on single-use, petrol-based plastics will be tabled in Parliament, marking a crucial step in the fight against plastic pollution.
Environment and National Beautification, Green and Blue Economy Minister Adrian Forde told the launch ceremony that approximately “500 tons of single-use plastics are sold monthly, and they are distributed not only into our landfills but, unfortunately, across the length and breadth of our country”.
The government said that the National Action Plan to End Plastics Pollution incorporates five key policy interventions considered to have the maximum impact in the fight against plastic pollution.
These strategies involve phasing out single-use plastic bottles by integrating the installation of water refill points, gradually eliminating single-use plastic bags, and removing other single-use plastic items, such as takeaway food containers, straws, and lids.
They also include implementing ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’, which will drive source separation when national recycling is started, and using downstream measures, such as enhanced on-the-go and bulk waste collections, together with improved enforcement against illegal dumping and littering.
Forde, in the environmental, health battle against plastics, emphasized the crucial role of the public. He was encouraging “a sense of ownership of our country to ensure that we do the right thing for other generations to come”.
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