Cabinet greenlights order to limit plastic imports
(CNS): During a meeting on 29 June, Cabinet approved the issuing of draft instructions for a prohibition order under the Customs and Border Control Act on importing some single-use plastics into Cayman. This was noted in the brief summary of the weekly meeting of the government’s inner circle, but the details of what will be banned have not yet been released.
At the start of last month, Premier and Sustainability Minister Wayne Panton revealed that a proposal to ban eight plastic items was expected to go before Cabinet. While this is expected to include things like bags, straws and styrofoam food containers, exactly what will be banned remains to be seen.
It is some four years since the previous administration formed a committee to look at a ban on single-use plastic in the Cayman Islands, which currently has no bans in place, despite a high level of local activism and the creation of Plastic Free Cayman more than six years ago and has since cleared around 90,000lbs of plastic from local beaches.
While the non-profit organisation was given a seat on the steering committee formed to work on the ban, there have been no meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic shut the islands down in 2020. CNS understands that PFC has not been consulted since then or told which eight products the government is proposing to ban or restrict in the first instance.
While much of the plastic being cleaned is washing up from neighbouring islands or cruise ships, there is still a great deal of locally generated discarded plastic. A major concern is the bio-degraded micro plastics that get into the marine food chain.
While Cayman does recycle type 1 and 2 plastics, most other plastics — not just here but around the world — are not recycled. The second session of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution was held in Paris from 29 May to 2 June to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, by next year, which will be the world’s first global plastics treaty.
Since the 1950s, global plastic production has soared from a mere 2 million tonnes annually to over 400 million tonnes today, according to OECD estimates. Unless checked, economic and population growth is expected to cause the use of plastic to double in G20 countries over the next 25 years.
Even in the face of what is undoubtedly a plastic pollution crisis, talks have been plagued with delays. Most of the 180 states involved in the talks, including Mexico, Canada, New Zealand and most of Europe, are calling for equally binding global rules, which would provide some regulatory predictability.
Others, including the US, Russia and China, want a less ambitious voluntary system in which countries can pick and choose actions. Recycling and bans remain part of the solution, but many experts say that without limits on production, they will have limited effect.
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Category: Environmental Health, Health
Prohibition has never worked.
As has been typical throughout their tenure, Panton’s feckless government has embarked on yet another token measure tailored to make it appear as if the gas-guzzler driver premiere and his minions are champions of the environment.
Please allow me to present…
The Rest of the Story:
There is no environmental free lunch in banning plastic bags, plastic containers, and plastic straws in favour of their paper counterparts.
CARBON FOOTPRINT:
It is widely accepted that the production of paper bags, containers, and straws incurs a larger carbon footprint compared to the manufacturing of similar plastic items. This is due to the energy-intensive processes involved in tree harvesting, wood transport, pulp manufacturing, bleaching and forming for paper products. These processes contribute to greenhouse gas emissions on a larger scale than plastics manufacturing, thus increasing the carbon footprint.
FRESH WATER USAGE:
Additionally, it is widely accepted that the production of paper items, including bags, containers, and straws, typically requires more water compared to their plastic counterparts. The water-intensive processes involved in pulp manufacturing and bleaching has a vastly larger potential to lead to water pollution. Pollutants from the paper manufacturing processes can and do enter water bodies, negatively impacting water quality.
SUSTAINABILITY of WATER CONSUMPTION:
Pulp and paper manufacturing are water-intensive processes that, if greatly stepped up to replace heavily-used plastic products with paper counterparts, will likely prove to be unsustainable if climate changes result in less rainfall and less available fresh water. Pulp and paper manufacturing require significant amounts of water throughout the production process. These water-intensive processes can strain local water resources, especially in regions with limited water availability. Climate change is said to have the potential to exacerbate water scarcity and alter rainfall patterns, leading to less available fresh water in many areas. This can pose challenges for water-intensive industries like pulp and paper manufacturing, potentially increasing the strain on fresh water supplies and further impacting the sustainability of these processes.
AIR POLLUTION:
Add to that the larger potential for air pollution. If the wind is right, one could tell for miles that they were approaching a paper mill by smell alone. It is widely accepted that the management of air pollution for paper production is far more involved and complex than that for plastic production in regard to the items considered for Panton’s bans.
THE TAKEAWAY:
Plastic bags, containers, and straws generally have a lower carbon footprint, lower water usage, a lower potential for water pollution, and a lower potential for air pollution during the manufacturing process.
ADDENDA:
DITTO FOR RECYCLING:
It is widely accepted that the recycling process for paper bags, containers, and straws generally requires more energy and water compared to the recycling of similar plastic items.
Thus far in regard to single-use plastic bags used for household food storage, no one has come up with a cost-effective, space-effective, quality-preserving solution to replace plastic food storage bags.
THE CONCLUSION:
–There is no free lunch.
–While we have to deal with soggy containers, torn shopping bags, droopy straws, no food storage bags, is Panton pledging to give up his gas-guzzling vehicles, his yacht, and his water-gluttonous green lawn, and to turn up his thermostat at home and office? I shall not hold my breath in anticipation of that happening. Poor leaders seldom lead by example.
Dam those pesky facts again. Always getting in the way of emotional arguments.
Can make the same case for electric vehicles. But hey, as long as its only the poor people of DRC that are mining the cobalt by hand so Greta & John Kerry can fly around the world lecturing everyone its all good right.
Please don’t bad plastic straws. Those eco friendly things are disgusting especially when they start to get soggy while sitting in your drink!
We just need to DITCH THE STRAWS. When did straws become a necessity? Just drink from the cup… Same with plastic to-go bags…do we not have TWO hands??
2 years late but lets hear it then? All plastic or just some right? You little tinker
Edible straws- which are now available in Cayman = would be the perfect solution to when the plastic straws are banned. Love the taste..it is delicious to eat it after using it for drinks.
I bought a box from Fosters Camana Bay.
With the exception of those recuperating from jaw, mouth, and/or throat surgery, most of us can normally manage liquids without a straw, or sippy cup. #adulting
Meanwhile, Jay imports cattle from Jamaica and calls animal agriculture “sustainable”.
I guess you want us all to become vegans. Different cultures have different diets according to culture, history and even genetic makeup, please respect the fact that meat has been a major source of protein here in the “Caymans” and probably will continue to be. Be a vegan if you want but respect local customs while doing that please!
The elephant in the foundation ,many homes are now built via Styrofoam block wall form/ construction technique. If a future ban on single use Styrofoam happens, is it still OK for contractors to build using it?
Yes, and same too for the concrete with very high GHGE footprint.
classic soon-come non-update.
thanks for nothing wayne.
Cue the bulk buying of Styrofoam containers by little restaurants.
…….. and serve take-out in banana leaves. Come on folks. We all want things to be environmentally friendly. You might as well espouse us cutting back on our overuse of oxygen from the air, and taking 14% less breaths (of course that would result in less CO2, thus making the plants sad.)
There are paper based containers here genius.
They no go good for oxtail with proper gravy Einstein.
Sounds like a you problem, mate
bring your own container
Small chech out plastic bags are NOT one time use. Most people including my family re-use them again in the small garbage pails in bed/bath rooms
Just do it.
How about also banning brands of sunscreen which harm the reefs?
I’m thinking this is briiliant as I am stuck in traffic in my big SUV with the AC on full blast.
Bets are that Solo and Dart brand cups are off the list. Though I’ve not seen a Dart styrofoam cup in years. A good start might be to ban water in small plastic bottles sub 1 litre and only import small volumes of water in aluminium cans. Single use vapes are also a serious problem not only for their plastic but lithium cells, a major dump fire risk.
Smoothie King
Wellies
This is precisely why they are billionaires and you are not. You really think they haven’t diversified their product offerings already?
Rise and grind guy has entered the chat
Come on Mr. Premier, time to let us, the PUBLIC, know what the proposed ban will include.
I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere deep in the contract to deliver fill for the Esterly Tibbetts Highway there is a 25-year agreement for the duty-free importation of styrofoam and Solo plastic cups.
Cayman has had collections point bins for years for various post-consumer household materials, but with the scrapping itself of the glass crusher, and no municipal grade replacement, we must accept that there’s no domestic recycling activity, just trash sorting. The factories that recycle aren’t here. There’s very limited domestic reusing/repurposing, reducing, or consumer refusal too. We don’t have any transparency on the fate of what is dutifully sorted for collection, and whether or not those materials are packed, shipped off island, or lumped themselves onto the landfill pile. It would support the credibility of this additional effort for DEH to describe the chain of custody, verification process, and publish these measurable statistics at least quarterly. In our complex we routinely witness Junk emptying collection bins into the dumpster like they know something we don’t.
Hear, hear! Best comment of the day!
I go to the store and buy some veggies and fruit which I put in plastic bags, then some meat which is in a plastic tray wrapped in plastic, a gallon of milk, orange juice, ketchup, mayo, and mustard, all in plastic jugs, some paper towels wrapped in plastic, a store made dessert in a plastic tub but I can’t put them all in a plastic bag because it’s bad for the environment? Maybe it’s time to realize that it is Humans in general that is bad for the environment or maybe just too many Humans and it might be time to think about trying to fix that before God has to do it for us.
Plastic trash is illustrative of humans not caring, but in planetary survival priority ranking, single-use drinking straws and plastic bags don’t crack the top 10 most urgent environmental issues at the moment. 2022 AR6 IPCC survival hopes hinge on global “human behavior change”, and by that they mean: urgently shifting to plant-based diets by 2030. That’s so that humans post 2100 don’t have to wear space suits. The revised early 2023 dataset is now for the 1.5’C tipping point to be surpassed within the next 3 years, so the deadline for adoption has moved up. Yet, we don’t see anything happening at scale, or even the topic discussion. Even self-ascribed environmentalists don’t want to mention the role of human diet in our own GHGE extinction, or that it was mentioned hundreds of times in the report (IPCC.ch).
Giant fishing nets are dragged across sea beds worldwide eery single day destroying everything to feed our appetite for seafood, but yeah, lets ban plastic straws here to make a difference.
Virtue signalling.
Which eight items?
Nunya
It’s about time!
‘While this is expected to include things like bags, straws and styrofoam food containers, exactly what will be banned remains to be seen.’
yeah we’re doing it but we don’t know what we’re doing, – more of the same from Waynes Govt.
The “T” stands for what again?
transvaluation, – but then life has handed them melons 😉
Yawn. Fix the damn dump.
Virtue signaling
#worldclass
Banning plastics while we bulldoze mangroves, drill and pour concrete in the ironshores, allow more and more buildings next to the sea, not addressing the traffic congestion and resulting CO2 emissions as CUC burns diesel fuel for electricity.
Virtue signalling masterclass.
How many cig/dot corporate sports fishing tournaments are there? There’s a fully subsidized Turtle meat factory. This govt is committing us to an expansion of the airline fleet and private aviation terminal. They still seek to be aligned with FCCA interests, and an expansion of cruise tourism volumes. NRA roads continue to be built without required integrated cycle lanes. All tone deaf to the environmental wake of these activities and omissions.
Good. No more graveyards littered with shitty plastic flowers.
A good policy, but it will not do anything to help the plastic in the ocean or the plastic that washes up on our beaches. That would need a much larger international agreement.
Fix The Dump.
I’ll give Haiti a call later today.
Call me if you need straws. Been stockpiling since those idiots started cutting down trees to make fall apart cardboard ones.
Plastic bags?! What will we use for trash?! Newspaper?
That’s what we used when I was growing up!
Do what countless people do globally. Put your waste in a wastebasket or kitchen garbage bin. When full or it gets too smelly, dump it into your roadside garbage bin and await pickup. Rinse, repeat.
The obvious answer, of course, is to simply reuse the plastic wrappers on bread, rolls, etc., thus making them more efficient. What are we going to replace them with? Paper? Are we really going to do that loop again?
Nothing wrong with waxed paper wrappers (reusable bees wax sheets even better)
Nothing wrong, except they don’t travel worth a SQUAT, especially in overheated shipping containers.
You obviously haven’t seen Bee Movie since you are advocating for their demise.