CIG cancels meeting on plastic policy
(CNS): Activists pressing government to introduce a single-use plastic ban in the Cayman Islands have expressed how disappointed they are that the ministry has cancelled yet another meeting of the steering committee formed to address the issue. The committee was created this summer to help develop a policy towards reducing the environmental harm caused by single-use plastics, but so far it has made little to no progress.
Plastic Free Cayman (PFC), the leading advocacy group calling for a complete ban on single-use plastics such as bags, straws and bottles, said in a release that it was incredibly disappointed that on the day the committee was due to sit, it was cancelled until further notice by a ministry official due to “insufficient numbers to make up quorum”.
However, almost half the committee members had confirmed they would attend, including three volunteers from Plastic Free Cayman.
The committee has met just once since it was formed and representatives from PFC said they have not yet received any minutes from that meeting. No agenda was circulated for this now cancelled second meeting and the plastic ban advocates say there are further problems with the committee.
“As yet, no clear mission statement, goals, responsibilities or action points have been set out for the committee,” Plastic Free Cayman stated. “Neither has any documentation been provided which indicates how the chosen stakeholders were selected, how decisions are made or what number of members are required to make up a quorum.”
It is now beginning to look like the ministry may be paying lip-service rather than making any real commitment to address some form of ban or limitation on single-use plastics, despite recent hints from the tourism minister that some kind of restriction was expected to be announced.
Nine months after the Cayman Youth Parliament debated and passed a
single-use plastic ban in the Legislative Assembly, the activists said government is failing to take on board the gravity of the well-known social, economic, environmental and health problems relating to single-use plastics.
Ben Somerville, from Protect Our Future, the youth advocacy movement that is working hard to raise awareness about the need to prepare for climate change, protect our environment and ban plastics, said there are a multitude of reasons why young people in Cayman want a ban on single-use plastics.
“First off there is the obvious reason that they are detrimental to the environmental health and prosperity of the Cayman Islands. Single-use plastics are thrown into the landfill or littered and end up being ingested by marine and land-based species,” he said.
“These species inevitably die. This constant cycle is leading to a decrease in multiple crucial species populations. In order to protect its pristine environment Cayman must ban these harmful plastics. Another reason is the perception people have of Cayman. With the world moving towards being more environmentally friendly and sustainability being at the forefront of almost all decisions made, the fact Cayman has not begun to do this yet looks poorly upon us,” Somerville warned.
PFC said that the government’s “passive stance” was “extremely alarming” given that experts at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have issued warnings that toxic chemicals used for food packaging can interfere with a child’s hormones, growth and development.
“Life-long health problems such as changing the time of puberty, affecting male genitalia development, decreasing fertility, affecting nervous and immune systems, increasing childhood obesity and contributing to cardiovascular disease are only some of the serious health effects of chemical exposure from food packaging highlighted by the AAP,” they added.
As plastics break down and become smaller and smaller, they enter the food chain by direct ingestion, such as through shellfish or by accumulation in animal tissue transferring to humans in a similar way to more commonly understood risks like heavy metals poisoning or ciguatera poisoning. Alongside the health impacts of ingesting food tainted with toxic chemicals, the activists said the community cannot ignore the government’s chronic failure to act on implementing an effective waste-management strategy.
“The lack of end-of-life stage planning for products and packaging, most of which are imported into Cayman, towers above our island as ‘Trash Everest’ assaulting our noses and leaching unquantified and unreported amounts of chemicals into the air, our groundwater and natural environment,” PFC stated.
PFC said that visual and odour pollution are common complaints they receives from tourists expecting to relax on Cayman’s white coral sand beaches. Instead, they find themselves walking across beaches littered with bright white Styrofoam food packaging, while single-use plastic drink bottles crunch under their feet.
On 7 December, during the latest beach clean-up, 25 PFC volunteers removed 500lbs of trash from Collier’s Beach in East End in under two hours, with most of it in the form of plastic bottles and Styrofoam.
With no action yet from government, despite repeated claims it will be addressing the issue, Cayman is lagging further behind its Caribbean neighbours. According to United Nations Caribbean Environment Programme, 21 countries in the region already have some form of ban in place.
Some countries have already banned single-use plastic ‘scandal’ bags and are phasing in strengthened regulations. As of 1 January, Jamaica will extend the ban to locally manufactured and distributed polystyrene foam food and beverage containers.
Worried that the government here does not have the will to take the necessary action, PFC is urging the people to continue their own efforts in saying no to single-use plastic.
“We applaud businesses, schools and individuals who have joined us in action by taking the Plastic Free Cayman 345 Pledge in committing to take steps to reduce their own single-use plastic consumption and be more mindful about their choices,” the activists said. “We are extremely supportive of the youth of Cayman speaking up for their future, yet we continue to wait for any tangible action from the government which will protect them.
As Plastic Free Cayman continues to campaign for a ban and government regulation on plastic use, they are urging everyone to take the 345 pledge and start the journey towards eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics.
For more information visit the Plastic Free Cayman website
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Category: Environmental Health, Health
Are they going to visit all the other caribbean islands to ask the same as that’s where it mostly washes up from.
Young climate protesters are confused and distressed about the increasingly bizarre criticism many older people throw at schoolchildren, in the media and elsewhere. In the absence of any meaningful attempts to restrain global carbon emissions, the direct action of young people should, logically, be applauded.
Yet, they accuse Greta of creating “needless anxiety” in children, call her mentally ill, a hysterical teenager and “a weirdo”. French academics criticised her looks, Donald Trump dismissed her entirely. Lots of criticism comes from middle-aged, conservative men, but strangers also accuse parents supporting their children on the school strikes of manipulating them.
Why some adults have reacted the way they have to the young strikers?
When adults are challenged to behave like adults, by a child, they can go in one of two directions. One is simply to grow up. The other, is to defend themselves.
It’s much easier to attack others than to look at ourselves. Very few adults are doing what they can or must. Kids have every reason to be very worried. Their protests are justified.
There is a lot of truth in what you say 9.02 am…
I do applaud these young people for their conscious efforts and whilst in principle, I applaud the young Greta Thornburg for her efforts, it dismayed me to see the following report on her own plastics usage as well as the fact that her well intentioned ‘non-carbon emitting’ travel by sea was overshadowed by the use of Aircraft by her boat Captain etc.. By all means, let’s shout it out regarding cessation of single plastic usage, but let those of us who shout it out, be the first to practice what we preach…otherwise, the message becomes farcicle ..
https://www.climatedepot.com/2019/12/12/how-dare-you-watch-greta-thunbergs-borrowed-tesla-littered-with-garbage-and-single-use-plastics/
I assume from the ‘thumbs-downers’ that they don’t agree the young people in the above article should be applauded (which probably means that the thumbs downers are guilty plastic abusers themselves). I don’t agree – as I said I think they should be applauded – I just pray that they practice the usage that they are advocating and I am in no way saying that they do not.
It is you, born in 1920-1970 who created, or at least with your silent approval, the plastic environment the world is suffocating in.
Yet, you have a nerve to pick on those who try to turn things around, who are the messengers. They’re very young and inexperienced. But at least they try to do something. You, on the other hand cant distinguish plastic straws, bottles and cups from plastic boats and airplanes. It is disposable plastic that pollutes seas, rivers and oceans. It is disposable plastic that got out of control for convenience of people like you. Many millennials carry their own reusable cups to buy coffee. Do you?
I am from the generation you refer to so I have to surmise you have no recollection of the way things used to be (You’re obviously just assuming!) which led to the disposable way of doing things which led up and continued to be pervasive from your generation an onwards. The following story illustrates the way things used to be in the generation you refer to:-
https://www.happiest.net/cashier-mocks-old-lady-in-store-but-her-comeback-leaves-her-searching-for-words/
It would be helpful if there was a “naughty” and “nice” list somewhere of sensitized local merchants that could help instruct local consumer choices on where they could go to provision their households. PS: We could do without the excessive rubber banding of eggs and berries too please…solutions to problems that don’t exist.
Why just ban plastic? What about aluminium cans, glass bottles, rubber (car tires), paper bags, lumber, fiberglass, batteries, metals, etc. When we shop the supermarkets could give you your drinks from a fountain and put your ground beef in your hand.
Dis you just get off the last bus from Dusseldorf?
Most of those suggestions will probably actually be the norm someday, as they should, but I sense derision in your comment. Do you have you ground beef in your hand right now?
You know he does. And he’s trying to make a burger using telepathy!
We got some takeout from a popular local restaurant last night, packed in styrofoam tray, wrapped in two layers of plastic kitchen wrap, they unnecessarily packed inside a plastic bag. Had we known they’d do this to our food, we would not have ordered from there, and won’t be doing the same anytime soon. We can certainly do better on the sensitization and education-side, both as merchants and consumers.
Exactly. I don’t even put fruits and vegetables into those plastic bags at the markets. I put them in my cart until they are loaded in my reusable bag, works just fine.
You can buy reusable veggie bags in the real world
I don’t need more bags to put inside bags. I’ll keep doing it my way and continue to also live in the real world.
The last people complained the styrofoam tray spilled everything out.
It is past time for the minister to get off his duff and do his job. Get the meeting going and get this important decision made for the future of the islands. Isn’t that the most important part of your job?
Move along. Nothing to see here.
Some are just talking and some are doing. As much as everyone hates plastic pollution, you cannot hide from the problem by just ignoring it.
I just can’t accept that all Caymanians, including government are so inert as to continue doing nothing.
Netherlands: Fishing for plastic | Global 3000 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KkZI78wMxxI
The guy has 30 employees. Making a living of plastic waste
Recycling in the Netherlands https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aaIJ65nz4e0
Netherlands. Plastics circular economy – Veolia https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zOr7cfFSmvk
We live in a country funded by and utterly dependent upon enabling people to avoid paying taxes on funds earned globally, but at least we do it efficiently, huh?! The taxes that are avoided would be far better utilized in countries in dire need of infrastructure and health and education investment, like the USA. But no, as long as the very few can hive off as much profit as possible and use the cayman islands to do so, and come visit their money a week each year, everything is great. Who thinks any moral or ethical argument to fix plastic single use is going to have any traction in this place? We’ve got a school and town being built next to a dump. Our largest local inward investor made his money from plastic and scavenging off distressed countries. And we all benefit in our own way from all of this. but sure, let’s stop using plastic bags, because that’s the real problem here. In fairness, at least it would be something, but maybe they’d be better burning all the trash they found on the beach rather than adding to the dump.
While you have few good points, most your conclusions and suggestions are bizarre.
The country that in dire need of infrastructure, education and health investments is not USA, but the Cayman Islands. Burning trash has detrimental effects not just on all living and breathing “things” today, but on unborn generations as well. Investment in health is not investment in medical equipment, drags or research. It is investment in health promoting environment. Just look how they do it in Netherlands or Japan.
Your oversimplified view on “tax heavens” is flawed as well..
Your ignorance is amazing.
There is too much single-use plastic in our lives to ban it outright. The best of us would never fully be in compliance.
PFC should first focus on the many small achievable environmental policy changes this government could safely implement, and get positive credit for:
* More serviced public recycling depot areas
* Institute a mandatory KYD$0.10 Environmental Protection Fund surcharge to all plastic merchant bags sold
* imposing environmental taxes on undesirable goods that will become future landfill leach
* polyvinyl chloride (PVC #3) – coincidentally all our water/irrigation fittings!!
* polypropylene (PP #5)
* polystyrene/styrofoam (PS #6) takeaway clamshells, and takeaway cutlery
* all other plastic (Other #7)
* mandatory commercial recycling for all hotel/tourism/restaurants/bars/watersports operators (with plans on how each will manage their own cost of delivery to a public depot area)
* start and finish the NRA budgeted bike lanes. ie. paint safe north-south, and east-west bike corridors (3 foot wide blue/green lanes), stencil bike and direction arrows, install bike box buffer areas at traffic lights, and dutch roundabout markings
* increase CUC’s proportion of renewal energy to accelerate sustainability ahead of schedule. Offer some kind of carrot incentive to do so earlier than planned.
Feel free to add to the list…
Unless road designers are involved as well as traffic engineers, I would not trust home grown “experts” to proceed with bike trails.
Invite Arkadiy Gershman, to get an overview picture of the roads in Grand Cayman. He has nearly 100 videos on roads, traffic, and urban design all over the world. In fact he would come on his own if someone would offer an accommodation. He will evaluate your roads for free and post on youtube.
Here is an example if his videos. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ0xfhgrJ-A&list=PLGt0veX7W_u0Cs8kYCvorc4U8kVRdor6N&index=10&t=854s
P.S. i am not affiliated withArkadiy in any way. I am blown away with his videos. He is not some amateur youtuber. His motto is “cities are for people”.
Fun fact: the barely-existent, and/or half-assed bike lanes, have been part of the Official NRA strategic plan, and budget, since 2015; helmed by a Premier, and Minister, who are themselves avid internationally-traveling cyclists! Still nothing.
Meanwhile, there are a half dozen cycling and athletic associations here that have all the knowledge we need to paint existing shoulder areas an agreed colour. They are alarmingly quiet as well. Nobody has to be an engineer to paint a 3 foot wide shoulder area. There are private companies that would sponsor the painting of each mile, and volunteers/school children that would happily stencil it up.
Most of the nicer hotels have loaner bikes, other bike stations are popping up for public rentals, some of the cruise ships have their own fleets coming ashore, segway tours, and normal commuters. 15 collisions, several deaths, and still nothing. I guess this Unity Gov’t is just waiting for an unacceptable number of people to die, before they decide to revisit their own strategic plan from five years ago.
Not so simple.
to those who are interested and want to see with its own eyes that bike paths better left to specialists..
ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM, April 6-11
Deadline for applications – March 1
Left: 9 places
International program in the Netherlands for the study of best practices in the field of architecture and urban planning.
We will visit more than 50 objects: from new residential areas on artificial islands to modern libraries and museums.
http://urbaninstitute.ru/au?utm_term=gershman
Yeah, нет берущих…but at least now we can see that XXXX and co have hired Russian bloggers to run bias and interference on CNS. Shameless.
How many follow Boyan Slat? At 25 he has accomplished what millions of others never accomplish in their lifetime.
Has anyone show interest to volunteer at The Ocean Cleanup? To learn and obtain skills? Many jobs would be created to deal with unprecedented plastic pollution. Are you going to give these jobs to expats again, because there would be no local experts? Does anyone here able to see farther than his nose?
https://mobile.twitter.com/BoyanSlat/status/1205227587015852032?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
A device invented by a 25-year-old is finally catching trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It hauled 60 bags to shore to turn into new products. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/ocean-cleanup-plastic-products-great-pacific-garbage-patch-2019-12
The Ocean Cleanup Teams Up with DNV GL
https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/the-ocean-cleanup-teams-up-with-dnv-gl
Link to the volunteer application at The Ocean Cleanup https://theoceancleanup.com/careers/jobs/volunteer-application/
Life is easy folks. Just hold some signs up, protest and make demands of other people to meet your wishes.
Weather banning single use plastics will make absolutely no difference whatsoever to the oceans or the fact that virtually none of the plastic on Cayman waters and shores come from Cayman, is irrelevant.
As long as your are posturing and seen as more virtuous than your neighbour, is ALL that matters. Intentions trump actual results any day of the week.
So go out there and be a good SJW.
Maybe our main benefactor (uncle Dart) isn’t ready for us to adopt Single Use Plastic?
Ken Dart? The man made his fortune from styrofoam!
More accurately: inherited and owes the family’s good fortune to.
Owns Solo Cup too.
And the Cayman Islands government.
This Ministry will become a case study for incompetence. From the top to the bottom, nothing happens timely and there continues to be zero accountability.
Franz, you have to realize that there are square pegs attempting to enter round holes, show leadership and shake them up. I know you can’t do anything about the Minister, but that’s okay, we the people will dish out his accountability at the polls next year, in the meantime, please assist us with the incompetence of the executive heading up this Ministry.
they got rid of the one little spark that was in there called Jennifer. She is slow too, but at least she is smart.
Assist you?
He just made it worse by letting the ‘esteemed’ Minister choose who he wanted to act as Chief Officer. Reason: Franz was in relentless relentless pursuit of a 5% raise for everyone, including elected officials and himself, even though it isn’t budgeted. Give him an ‘A’ – he got it too.
And we got this sh_!
The Facts. Stop crying! Our DG made the right decision. We civil servants worked and sacrificed for years and deserve this cost of living increase.
Shame on you for being so selfish and bitter. That’s not CaymanKind and not our culture.
Come on get over it!!
Its Christmas!! Keep calm. For a cancelled meeting to make headlines effectively demonstrates the peaceful and well run Islands we are fortunate to live in.
Huh? You need to stop drinking booze so early in the morning.
Vodka, 131 proof straight up. I’m f’in wasted.
We can tell
Sorry, but it’s such a stupid idea to pick up trash off of the beach only to send it to our landfill. The trash will wash right back up within a year, resulting in a net negative for the island.
All clean ups need to instead focus on collecting recyclables ONLY
While you are correct that picking up the garbage off of the beach will go to the landfill, you are incorrect in thinking that it will end up back on the beach. Not sure what could make you come to that conclusion but an abundance of ignorance on your part seems to be a foregone conclusion. While the burgeoning issue of the lack of infrastructure in Cayman (and the purposeful ignoring of foresight by successive ‘powers that be’) is a continuing and now exacerbated problem, the garbage at the landfill is not ending up back into the sea if that is what you meant. If you meant that because there will always be plastic garbage floating up on the coast no matter how many times it is picked up then you are right. You are, however, wrong to discourage those who do go and clean up the beach time and again and call their efforts stupid.
As of 10:17am, this is the most “bizarre” comment (7:29am)
Of course they weren’t implying the garbage is going from our landfill to sea to beach back to landfill you fool. You choose to put more unnecessary sh#t into our landfill while it’s at 99% capacity!
Clean up the beach this weekend to make yourself feel good and by the next episode of bad weather, more garbage will wash up from foreign.
It’s a futile exercise because our landfill can only hold so much foreign trash, not to mention our own. If you aren’t recycling you’re out there wasting time and precious land space.
Fair enough, I did misread what 7:29 was saying at the beginning of their comment. Me culpa. It is however you who are the fool if you are actually going to complain about people picking up the garbage on the beaches and coastline.
I would recommend that the beach clean up committee chairs visit Lands and Survey and determine who actually owns these derelict “coastline” properties. More often than not these days, much of these neglected areas, serviced by volunteers, are actually owned by DART nominee companies, and the duty to maintain them rests solely with DART. I would feel a special betrayal to have donated my sweaty Sunday morning to helping out the lazy minions of the Billionaire developer – too cheap and short-handed to properly maintain their growing portfolio.
“Fix the damn dump!” as one CNS commenter says.
Adding foreign trash to it is the opposite of fixing it. The complaints are warranted.
We are many. Fix the damn dump !
I work on the dump and all 30 unna that downvoted just salty that 729 ruined something for you.
Yea it makes you feel like you’re doing something great for the planet when you go out on the beach early morning but tbh unless you collecting recyclables to be processed elsewhere, we simply DO NOT have the room for unna big black bags full of crap that washed up from Eastern Caribbean.
Will the Minister blame this cancellation on Jennifer as well??
How many people are required for a quorum?
The first two comments are indicative of the reprehensible dichotomy at play here. The first comment at 7:30pm speaks about ‘spiting the hippies’ as they are speaking from the standpoint of self induced ignorance and idiocracy which is the calling card of the far right agenda. The diametrically opposed second comment at 7:32pm is just as rephrensible in it’s thought process and outright bigotry where they quite obviously deride anyone who is of a faith based belief system and attempts to blame the situation on said faith based belief system. Both viewpoints are heinous and are indicative of the ultimately debilitating extremes which have both attempted to hijack any and all good and/or common sense initiatives, and they have both destroyed the possibility of a positive outcome because of their myopic dueling agendas. In order for one, for instance, to be a Christian believer then one has to know and understand that we are called to be STEWARDS of this earth and it is as simple as that. The underlying factor at play here is the GREED of the powers that be (legitimate and/or otherwise) who have control over policy and/or decision making processes. The vast and overwhelming majority of plastic garbage on our shorelines does not come from here. It comes from the failed state of Haiti, albeit among other sources. That being said, it is a good and worthy initiative for us in the Cayman Islands to work towards finding viable solutions to the very real, very destructive, very toxic and negatively consequential effect of plastic pollution regardless of it’s source. To that end, it is disappointing, yet in no way surprising, that this particular present day amalgamation of governmental maladministration is continuing to kick the can down the road and avoid dialogue. The same goes for the failure to actually enact SIPL and myriad other examples of dereliction of duty at the hands of those for whom supposed leadership actually translates to self interested and greed induced lechery. We need to find solutions, economically viable alternatives, ways of reducing/reusing/recycling both practically and efficiently. There is technology out there which is growing in leaps and bounds in order to tackle these issues. Cayman’s unique position could be a point of light in this regard but it will not happen if the institutionalized corruption of Cayman is not treated as the clear and present danger which it most certainly is and/or the two extremist sides of the political pendulum are allowed to continuously thwart any solidarity because of their bigoted (for the love of all that is holy please people go look up the meaning of the word in a dictionary) and their own self serving agendas. Plastic pollution and it’s negative effects affect all of us.
Well said, thank you.
Fancy drawn out word play. Like a watered down alcoholic drink. Yea, it has effect still, but get to the point man.
CNS, this comment must not be lost among the mostly useless other comments. Please feature it.
Frankly, and sadly, such rare gems, as 7:06 comment, are practically unheard of here..
7:06, What is your education? I am intrigued.
If I have succeeded at illuminating some of the factors at play here, and more importantly those factors which stand in the way of the solidarity necessary for real and positive change, then it was worth the effort. I have a high school education, one year of college and a diploma from the school of hard knocks.
You should ask where the paragraphs are instead
One couldn’t have said it better
“ … examples of dereliction of duty at the hands of those for whom supposed leadership actually translates to self interested and greed induced lechery.”
Note this guy doesn’t actually refute any of the points regarding Christians disregarding the severity of climate change because they believe this world is going to be destroyed anyway which is without contest mainstream christian ideology and found prominently displayed in christian eschatology (mostly because he can’t ) He just calls everything he doesn’t like bigotry and then tries to do the whole “why cant we all just get along and meet in the middle garbage” that people take when they don’t have an actual argument
There is a reason why around the world the right wing, which is almost always bound hip to hip with religion and the religious groups disputes climate change, fights against protections for the environment and continues pushing the idea that the world has a natural divine balance that man cannot alter.
Christians love to act as if they are the fount of all righteousness and moral clarity
Until you actually start pointing out what they believe and then you are a bigot, because they can’t actually deal with standing face to face to the horrors in their texts and dogma.
Next time I’ll just use quotes from Church Leaders and the Bible referring to the impermanence of this place and the new home that awaits the righteous making this earth nothing but a distraction.
Will they be called bigoted as well?
If repeating christian beliefs a bigot makes then so be it
Please just take note of this; Alienating those who may be of the Christian faith based belief system (and/or any other for that matter) from joining in solidarity with all of the walks of life necessary for any semblance of a successful effort to tackle the myriad issues which we as PEOPLE face is counter productive. I get it. You do not cotton to the concept and fair enough. I am not asking you to. Beyond that, I would rather play chess with a pigeon.
dwayne seymour….proof that status holders must be allowed run for office.
Ummm, he is a status holder…
the usual shambles from cig and the civil service. sack seymour now.
Why please. Why is our Government so nasty and self Served? Dear Lord Help Us
Use facts to convince the community to not use plastic where possible and stop trying to control and dictate to everyone what the can and can’t do – because YOU think they shouldn’t
Register To Vote
Who is surprised in the slightest?
Busy your heads in the sand again everyone.
Typical reaction to an island wide and global issue.
We need to drain the swamp. Our government are not servants of the people. They are power hungry leaches. It is time to declare we are done with them. All they need to do is show the public some respect and seek to understand differing viewpoints. They do neither.
All well-intentioned of course, but missing the irony. “25 PFC volunteers removed 500lbs of flotsam trash from Collier’s Beach in East End in under two hours”…by putting it all into heavy duty black single use plastic garbage bags. By all means Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle locally, and advocate the same in others, to the extent that happens or is possible, but also recognize there are certain larger oceanic plastic and global consumer realities we can’t reasonably blame on our largely uneducated amateur-hour government. All our sanitation, imported frozen foods, #3,4,5,6 plastic consumer staples are broadly over-packaged single use, until the day that hundreds of millions of privileged consumers in NorthAmerica decide to do away with these trappings. Our 2.5mln tourists and condo visitors certainly aren’t packing down their reusable bags from the mainland either. The low-lying fruit in Cayman are the hotels that use single use #5 glasses and do nothing to recycle; the styrofoam takeaway trays that shouldn’t exist in 2020; the love affair with heated BPA plastic receipt paper and flats of plastic-bottled foreign tap water at every event.
the beach clean ups don’t use heavy duty black trash bags- they use the clear green ones that are as eco-friendly as possible. It has to go into something, right?
Hotels are recycling- go check their bins.. Granted, not as much as they should be- but the CIG can make this a mandatory thing very simply- Hey Hotels, no more mini bottles of shampoo and body wash- convert to the bulk, refillable ones that stay in the showers! Small plastic mini bottles of water? No more, put filling stations everywhere and put reuseable bottles in the room (they pay enough for the room, this can be paid for w/ the daily resort fee). Condo can provide reusable grocery bags for the units, this is a low cost issue, not a big deal! And styrofoam should be banned world wide- full stop~
And finally, CIG needs to take their heads out of the sand and join the efforts of their neighbors, enough already with BS committees- just BAN it, and maybe we can get on BBC, CNN etc etc as a LEADER in the environmental efforts, instead of the other way around! Stop being an embarrassment! VOTE THEM OUT!
#registertovote #votethemout
Cleaning it out of sight, out of mind, is a hard volunteer effort and super nice in this climate, but it’s a cosmetic band-aid only. The flotsam garbage, and future leachates, are just moving from A to B in a quick-dissolving green bag, to an unlined landfill. That’s the irony. We need to remediate or cap the dump. Make that the primary issue. 100% with you on everything else as well. Good ideas.
“Our 2.5mln tourists and condo visitors certainly aren’t packing down their reusable bags from the mainland either.”
Actually, before leaving for the airport to visit Cayman that’s among the last items on the checklist – “Do we have our shopping bags?”
Oh no, can’t tee off the most prolific manufacturer of single use plastics in the world and most loved bed fellow of our CIG. That would be blasphemy😱
TRUTH
To the surprise of absolutely no one
The fundamentalist conservative government here isn’t actually taking any of this seriously
Almost as if they believe there is another plane of existence for them to inhabit waiting for them that lessens the importance of preserving the one we are currently on…
Reason #234 for not letting lunatics with delusions of eternal paradise in the heavens run countries and set public policy
You are seriously misinformed. Every Christian knows that God gave humankind the earth with a command to look after it. Don’t try to paint the Government’s lack of movement as a characteristic of Christians. It’s a current (hopefully not permanent) characteristic of this Government.
No, the imaginary god of the Christians gave them the Earth and its resources to exploit and use up, not to “look after”. And most are very obedient on this, unfortunately.
In the abundance of your conceited ignorance you are conflating the flawed concept of ‘manifest destiny’ with the teachings of Christ. One could expect nothing better from those such as yourself who would and will continue to use Christianity as the whipping boy for your woefully unfounded suppositions. The reality is that it is a direct result of the influences of a secular mindset if anything where these issues arise from. You can try all you wish to disingenuously misrepresent these facts, but it is not the truth. Research ‘manifest destiny’. Look at the tenets within said ethos and the source and the reasoning behind it. Furthermore, the assumption that the motives of politrickians are even remotely connected to the will of God is laughable at best. Therein be both the problem and your own personal stumbling block.
Except it is an exact characteristic of almost all Christians who clearly are taught this earth is impermanent and flawed and that material physical existence holds no meaning beyond spiritual belief and faith
It is no coincidence that across the world it is the right wing buttressed by fundamentalists that denies climate change, fights against regulations to keep pollution and pollutants low because they don’t inherently believe this is our one irreplaceable place to exist as we currently understand it
Religion whether you like it or not gives people comfort to forget the consequences for their actions especially when they are promised eternal paradise at the end of their short lives as long as they believe
The world would be better off without their garbage polluting the minds of millions
and allowing them to destroy the planet and sleep at night because the material world is irrelevant to them
They won’t take anything serious until something bad happens to them. We’ll all hear a different tune if one of these corrupt players in power was to find out plastic was making them sick.
They can’t tell me that I can’t use plastic. I use twice as much now just to spite the hippies.
Imagine laughing off the idea of the runaway greenhouse effect in a planet’s atmosphere when Venus exists
The hottest planet in our solar system stands as a permanent testament to the risks that carbon emissions pose
The only people who argue with the conclusive science are idiots
Lonesome? Need a friend? Reach out on CNS.
You on the other hand are simply ignorant
Well aren’t you a sweetie pie. Brain dead too, but you can’t help that honey x.
While you’re at it put a plastic bag over your head and breathe in very deeply until you understand what you’ve said.
#plasticfreekind
moron.