Gov’t finally changing law to ban single-use plastics
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government is in the process of changing customs legislation to ban the importation of a significant number of types of single-use plastic. Officials from the sustainability ministry said that small plastic grocery check-out bags, plastic straws, plastic stir sticks, plastic chopsticks, sky lanterns, polystyrene cups and clamshell food containers are all expected to be on the list of prohibited items.
The battle to ban single-use plastic has been long, and this step towards making it a reality has been in no small part to the activism of Plastic Free Cayman.
The non-profit organisation founded by Claire Hughes has cleared tens of thousands of pounds of plastic from Cayman’s beaches over the last seven years, and in partnership with other environmental groups, such as the young activists from Protect Our Future, it has lobbied hard for this ban, which has taken years to take shape.
According to a press release, Cabinet recently approved further drafting instructions for amendments to the Customs Tariff Act (2023 revision) to remove some plastic from the duties list to the prohibited list. It is almost one year since then-premier Wayne Panton announced plans to implement the ban through a Prohibition Order. However, the CIG now believes that restricting the items through a legislative change to the Customs Tariff Act would be more effective.
Unfortunately, the government has also decided not to ban plastic party balloons and their sticks because of a lack of sustainable alternatives, even though they are particularly harmful to the marine environment.
Minister of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency Katherine Ebanks-Wilks said the proposal was a significant step forward in the effort to protect the environment.
“The single-use plastic items we have identified are significant contributors to plastic pollution and environmental degradation globally,” she said. “Although many of these items wash onto our shores as trash from other jurisdictions, by banning their importation, we are proactively safeguarding our natural resources and prioritising the resilience of the Cayman Islands.”
Officials said restricting single-use plastics is just one part of reducing their environmental impact, and proper waste disposal is crucial for fostering cleaner, greener communities. However, the goal to address Cayman’s looming garbage crisis remains stalled, and officials have refused to respond to questions from CNS relating to the status of the talks between the government and Dart over the proposed ReGen project, which CNS understands has been completely de-railed.
Residents can currently recycle only a limited number of plastics, and there are still multiple single-use items that are not on the banned list and cannot be recycled, such as soda and beer pack plastic holders, cutlery and food packaging.
“The Cayman Islands Government remains dedicated to advancing environmental conservation efforts forward to continued collaboration with stakeholders to achieve shared sustainability goals,” officials said. However, there is little evidence of any serious attempts by the CIG to implement genuinely sustainable policies.
Minister for Health and Wellness Sabrina Turner pointed out that her ministry cannot advocate for the health of the nation without talking about environmental health.
“We cannot talk about environmental health without confronting the reality of the trash that we generate. By now, we all know that the space within our landfill is finite. The single-use plastic ban is one solution which the government is looking at to deal with our collective waste, and our success as a nation is equally, if not more, dependent on individual behaviours and practices around reducing, reusing and recycling,” she said.
For years, the government has said it was pursuing the inverted waste pyramid as a way of managing the trash generated here, but it has failed to introduce any type of campaign to encourage people to reduce consumption or to reuse items previously discarded. Less than 3% of the waste generated in the Cayman Islands is recycled, a situation made worse recently by the end of glass recycling.
Turner said that the ban on some plastics will require everyone to make changes that may feel much less convenient at times. “But when it comes to fighting to protect the things and people that we love, inconvenience is not even a thought, much less a deterrence. Let us all continue to work together towards the same goal of protecting Cayman now and in the future,” she added.
Businesses with questions or feedback can contact the Ministry of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency at sustainability@gov.ky.
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Category: Local News
Perfect, we’re back to killing trees and deforestation again.
small check out plastic bags are not a one time time use. we all use them again in our bed/bath rooms small waste pail/baskets. If they are banned, what we going to use ? probably
be selling one time special small plastic bags to use in them pails and that will be one time use only
Ban plastic straws but not bottles. What’s that all about?
Will people be expected to pick up there dog sh*t with their bare hands next?
Fisherman are now expected to use expensive zip lock bags for bait or seafood storage in freezers?
Can’t wait for every bar/ restaurant drink to include one of cardboard straws that disintegrate as you enjoy each sip.
Local supermarkets losing a nice chunk of change from this ban; wonder where that’s going to be past along to the consumer?
There are biodegradable dog bags.
Why can’t they use reusable bags for seafood storage?
Sip from the cup, people have done it for years before straws.
time to learn how to drink without a straw, but judging from your comments you must be under 10 years old.
I’ll send you my Toddler’s ‘almost brand new’ sippy cup. Just what another toddler needs – grow up.
This was never a problem 60 years ago.
What changed?
Why nibble around the edges with straws!?!? Just ban the darn plastic bottles!
Turner who?
Instead of wasting Govt $$ on another Deloitte “study” let’s sign a contract with a PROVEN SINGLE-STREAM recycling contractor.
Hey Election year Politicians: – this could be implemented within a year. Unlike decades ago, every household has a defined address so database is already there?
I bet they would include the Red and Green bins for every household. This is a piece of cake for WM. Grand Cayman is smaller in population that most suburbs in the USA (I checked, my old home town is now 76,000 – Again, this is a suburb.) The garbage collection is seamless.
Waste Management Inc, also known as WM, is the largest waste company in the United States. It generated an astounding $17.93 billion in revenue in early 2022. Modern landfills, waste-to-energy solutions, and single-stream recycling are part of the company’s waste management system
Good 1st step, but it takes more!! We need home recycling with dual trash bins at every house/apartment.
All the other countries I visit (even USA) has a good recycling system. My family in the Midwest of the States simply breaks down their amazon boxes, plastic wraps from retail shopping, wine/beer/soda bottles, paper goods and once a week the garbage collector picks up the RED bin and two days later, a different truck (same company) collects the food garbage.
Toronto even has hefty fines for not recycling. If 3 million people in a metropolitan city can do it, our tiny sq ft island can too!
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2007/04/04/not-recycling-properly-can-lead-to-hefty-fines/
Canadian municipal and provincial governments are about as corrupt as Guatemala. Toronto has had landfill issues for years and came up with recycling to sort rail-bound trash cargo for export. Consumers really don’t care or track what happens to it once it’s carefully sorted into piles.
In 2019, the CBC attached GPS trackers to three recycling bundles and tracked what happened to each. One was burned, one was sent to landfill, only one actually got to a recycling centre:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/marketplace-recycling-trackers-b-c-blue-box-1.5299176
Anyone else find it odd the goods we buy at the supermarket are almost all wrapped in plastic (single use at that) then charged for a plastic bag (presumably to be banned) to put it all in. It is not about saving the planet, it is about profit. The supermarket could offer paper bags, but it is more profitable to charge 5 cents for a plastic bag.
paper is made out of trees is it not?
If only we could ban ‘No-use Politicians”
Pointless considering the mass destruction of mangroves and other natural habitat to build roads and more condos for the rich.
And also creating new flooding problems
#worldclass
What next, a ban on condoms unless you want to reuse them too? I’m sure JuJu and her orthodox puritan followers would just love that.
Yeah, like any of ya are using condoms with the amount of unwanted kids here.
Yawn. Rich expats con game for PR.
While we are on the subject, any update from DOEH on purchasing a glass crusher? While this Government stumbles on blindly, everyone, including all our esteemed MPs, must throw all glass containers out with the trash. Evidently none of our MPs care a jot – not one mentioned it in Finance Committee when they set the 24/25 budget. Nor in PQs; yes I’m talking to you, PPM..
The media should be asking Sabrina Turner where the glass crusher is.
Wonder if there is something bigger coming that they want to change why this promise to ban certain single-use plastics is now being actioned….
Turners comments about protecting Cayman are laughable while she and her crappy government allow every square inch of it, particularly west of Hurleys, to be covered by concrete and people to flock in here and clutter up the infrastructure.
Pretty pointless exercise given the super markets and 99% of all packaging / materials are plastic……with no meaningful recycling program and our national treasure Mt. Trashmore this is nothing more than a photo op and tid bit for the current Govt to say they “did something”…..
DART products strewn island-wide yet do not appear on the list….imagine that.
Virtue signalling masterclass driven by rich expats and their brethren looking for PR.
You mean the Dart Container products – the company that Ken handed over management of to his brother 23 years ago?
Did DARTs brother change his surname when DART bought SOLO?
Polystyrene/Dart
Yet single use plastic water bottles not banned and there’s a lot more of them than straws.
It’s not pointless. It is change by small degrees. It is how positive change has always happened throughout history. Agree that there are many facets of ‘single-use plastics’ that are difficult to do away with, but why not change those things that are within our grasp?
I reuse those plastics that are forced upon me as a result of packaging. Clerks in the store don’t CARE a single bit if you carry your tomatoes to the checkout counter in a bread bag, or a net bag from oranges, or anything else. Those things are sold by the pound.
Don’t do it to vitue signal. Just do it because it’s the only change that you can affect on your own personal level.
Don’t buy or use plastic straws. Easy. Low-hanging fruit.
I will really impressed when the Cayman Islands enforces a cardboard container for fast food and takeout, rather than styrofoam clamshell containers. Then we will know we’ve really made a local difference. Don’t worry, Mr. Dart won’t care. He’s already made his fortune.
After this current parliament session in June 2024 I bet there will at the most have 1 or 2 sessions of parliament befor elections.
So there is really no time to pass laws that have been promised. Whenever you speak to a Minister they will recite a list of laws they will pass. Who are they trying to fool?
“DART products strewn island-wide yet do not appear on the list….imagine that.”
Read the article again bobo!
But all this garbage that washes up on our shores isn’t from Cayman?
I am all for saving the environment. But banning plastics isn’t going to make any impact at all.
Other countries dump thousands of pounds into the ocean thousands of pounds every day. Cayman doesn’t do that.
Banning anything isn’t going to reduce the dump. We need a propper plant or program.
Funny how Dart makes TONS of waste around the world but we want him to clean up the dump, lol the irony.
Rich expats PR hack
Except he doesnt – resigned as CEO of Dart Container in 2001. Want to chuck a rock, talk about his development activities in Cayman or his vulture fund activities but blaming him for something he has no control over for decades is a tad unfair
I collect rubbish from the beach daily. Lots of cans & bottles look in pristine condition. They are from here for sure.
Shore & small boat fishermen drop rubbish in the water (I’ve been told to mind my business when I speak to them). Lots of lunch polystyrene containers left tied to trees in plastic bags. Why?!?!?
You don’t wan to do your part, bro? What if your part only makes a 0.12% difference? Isn’t that enough?
Ban stryrofoam, oh wait, nevermind.
It would have to cause cancer to be banned.
Oh wait, nevermind.
ban cars?….producers are not the problem… it’s the consumers and how they dispose of the product
Throughout human history, we’ve gone from paper bags, to plastic bags, back to paper. Paper is far more biodegradable, however more harmful to the trees.
I predict that getting rid of polystyrene clamshell food containers will create a Caymanian apocalypse of gigantic proportion. This may be the end of the world as we know it*.
*and I feel fine
What will people now throw out of their windows when driving?
Paper straws while watching the rich assholes landing their private jets.
Heineken bottles are the preferred choice for littering. They smash on impact making them much more difficult to clean up but easy for bicycle tyres to find.
I guess they will have to revert to littering recyclable aluminium containers.
345 beer cans .
Dragon stout bottles
I have been reusing plastic grocery bags for the produce that I buy, along with a reusable shopping bag. I want to know what we are going to use for produce instead of these SU plastics.
Also…… plastic chopsticks? Really? I use wooden chopsticks a lot, especially for cooking, so I don’t really care about losing plastic ones, but this is really a sustainability issue?
What about the real juice — the plastic bag around all our bread? We can reuse that also, however people have to give a **** to do so.
I buy bread from Anna at Farmers market or from Allora. Both sold in brown paper bags. I slice when I get home & freeze in my reusable ziplock bags (used only for bread). I have another reusable bag that I put my cheese in instead of using Saran wrap.
That’s nice for you but food stamps don’t work at either of those two places.
Are you working?
Get a better job. Instill education in your children so they are not replicating your situation. Self responsibility. I grew up with nothing and was determined to be better. My three children are in a much better spot than I had – they worked for it as did I. Quit blaming others for your lack of motivation.
Might want to rethink that.
https://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/documents/raise/publications/2011/environment/3611.pdf
But I put the paper in the recycling, not the general garbage!!
In the watertight recycling bins I bet.
The elite always have a plan.
Good for them.
Elite? I’m on a Cayman pension. Bread from both locations mentioned cheaper than the ‘fresh’ bread sold at Hurleys.
First lesson, don’t shop at Hurleys.
Meanwhile, airplanes and CUC burning that dinosaur juice so you can tell us how virtuous you are.
Futile cause. The wealthy ex-pats pushing this agenda can afford not to use single-use plastics. Food costs will rise and become more unaffordable for some and small restaurants may fail as they operate on small margins.
A proper recycling program is the key, along with a proper education. But this will never happen as CIG can’t implement a good educational program and the importation of 3rd world labor will add to the littering on land and in the sea.
If a business fails because they can no longer use styrofoam packs and plastic cutlery they are in the wrong business to start with. Blimey!
10:30pm your obviously one of these Wealthy Expats!
A large portion of these 3rd laborers have no stove or microwave and eat from these small local restaurants. If your gonna remove there cheap containers then offer a solution first.
one small step for man…one giant leap for caymankind.
anyway this is just another soon come story…cig is an incompetent mess all overseen by a spineless puppet governor.
Hooray, let’s all switch to the so called compostable plastics which are made from plant based plastics, or more like just a fraction thereof. And if you believe this greenwashing you’re just about as dumb as a single use plastic straw yourself.
At least cayman can give itself a huge pat on the back and feel all fuzzy that we became another 0.05% to offset our 95% fossil fuels addiction.
Group hug.
The ones which are clearly marked indicating that they are compostable, in an industrial composting facility, which we don’t have? Makes perfect sense.
I would love to see these clowns try to stop me using a plastic straw
Seriously? What a stupid hill to die on.
Enjoy your soggy cardboard, eejit.
I can drink from the cup. It works, you should try it.
I want to see that also. In fact, I want a Marl Road video of your profound embarrassment. Good times.
Wait a minute. Are the millions of single use plastic water, soda, juice, milk, etc banned? Water bottles are the absolute worst. Did I read there and missed it? Plastic straws banned?
Water bottles are terrible! Hotels giving out plastic bottles to guests instead of encouraging them to use water stations. Oh wait…even the new indigo doesn’t have that. Nor recycle trash receptacles SMH
Do tell how many millions of gallons these rich guests used to fly here and for CUC to light the way.
“Our future is not single use” What an odd banner. That is exactly what it is, you get one shot, it’s not a rehearsal.
Prohibition has never worked
Maybe, say in about 50 years, Cayman will have a WTE plant.
Being Cayman, it will run for a few years, break down, never be fixed and we’ll be back to building trash mountains.
Ban anything that DART produces!
Funny, they seem to be missing from the list
https://www.minderoo.org/plastic-waste-makers-index/
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57149741
Like jobs for your neighbors, cousins, mothers to your children as you sit on the couch typing nonsense.
there are biodegradable alternatives that can be found, this is good on all hands.
Good on one hand, but bad on another: Food costs will go up for those who can least afford it.
Doesn’t have to! Many countries offer stores/refilleries where you bring your own container and buy from bulk. You can buy just about anything from vinegar, oil, pasta, cereals, detergent etc. using a reusable container, no single use plastic needed and likely even cheaper as bought in bulk by the store. It allows you to purchase as much or little as you like and you don’t pay for the container. I hope to see this very soon in Cayman!
You won’t.
Dream on
Great comment, but it will take some minimal effort from the complainers. And minimal effort is seriously lacking here.
Sigh, 12:37. I bet you live in an up market condo or gated development and are probably an expat earning a very large salary. Most of us…over 95%…. cannot afford all the kumbaya stuff in these posts!
Rich expats driving more punishment on the poor.
First it was the ban of old cars, now it’s this. Probably go after dance hall music next.
Incremental colonialism.