Supermarket drops plastic bags but no sign of wider ban
(CNS): More than seven months after the government’s last indication that it was still working on a single-use plastic ban, first raised by the then PPM coalition some seven years ago, Foster’s Supermarket has made a decision to get rid of plastic bags from all its stores and is selling reusable bags at 25¢ instead. Hurley’s is also dropping back on plastic bags by giving out free paper bags or reusable bags for a price, though it still has plastic available on rainy days. Kirk Market has not yet introduced a ban but charges for its plastic bags as well as its range of reusables.
Most of the supermarkets are also rejecting Styrofoam food containers and plastic containers and offering greener compostable materials instead.
Meanwhile, the government is still dragging its feet on its long-promised ban. CNS contacted the sustainability ministry this week about the plastic ban — as we did last year in October. We did not get a response then, nor have we had a response this week.
In June last year, almost five years since the previous administration formed a committee to look at a ban on single-use plastic, eight items, including single-use plastic bags, were listed in drafting instructions to amend the customs law. However, there is still no sign of the amended legislation.
In the meantime, an increasing number of businesses are dropping single-use plastics, though it is by no means widespread. If Cayman is to reduce the huge amount of plastic waste it produces, the ban is needed.
Foster’s said it had made the decision as part of its commitment to sustainability and stopped selling plastic bags on Thursday, 6 February, at the registers at all its locations.
“At Foster’s, we’ve had to heavily reflect on what our environmental stewardship should ultimately represent to the community,” said Managing Director Woody Foster. “By removing the single-use bags at the registers, we have re-committed ourselves to the belief that collectively, these steps — no matter how small — contribute towards a meaningful impact that we are crafting with, and for, our customers, one bag at a time.”
Alongside the reusable value-priced 25¢ bag, the supermarket will also offer a higher-capacity reusable ‘cooler bag’ for chilled items, which costs a few dollars.
The supermarket said its accumulative reduction of plastic by replacing plastic items with eco-friendly options would reduce the store’s overall plastic waste that goes to the landfill, protect marine life, and preserve the natural beauty of the Cayman Islands.
Foster said that the business aims to phase out all single-use plastics across its stores, wherever possible, by the end of 2025. He said meaningful change requires a collective effort, even if they appear difficult to adopt initially. By choosing reusable bags and consciously reusing, customers play a pivotal role in reducing plastic waste and engendering a culture of sustainability within the community.
Foster’s is also compacting and recycling cardboard, reducing plastic wrapping for pallets using solar power and has partnered with Beacon Farms to recycle non-protein food waste, cardboard packaging, and pallets into over 30,000lbs of compost.
Proceeds from the sale of the new reusable bags will contribute towards community-based initiatives, charities, sustainability drives, and other campaigns designed to supplant an age of plastic with one of renewal, Foster’s stated.
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Category: Business, Environmental Health, Retail
Those check out plastic bags was NOT a one time use. we used them again in our bed and bath rooms garbage pails/baskets. So now what we to use in those Pails/baskets, ? other plastic bags with a one time use ?
Everyone got a mountain of these in a cupboard at home. Been waiting for this moment for a long time….
To the commenters suggesting that the meat and dairy industry is “the axis of evil” when relating to the effect of food production on climate change, allow me to introduce you to The Hidden Cost of Commercialized Vegetable Farming
Modern commercial vegetable farming relies heavily on GMOs, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers to maximize yield. While this may seem like an efficient way to feed the masses, the long-term consequences are devastating.
Soil Degradation – Overuse of chemicals strips the soil of its natural nutrients, leading to barren, lifeless land that can no longer sustain crops without artificial inputs.
Runoff Pollution – Excess fertilizers and pesticides wash into nearby rivers and lakes, disrupting ecosystems, harming aquatic life, and contaminating drinking water.
Biodiversity Loss – Pesticides don’t just kill pests; they harm essential pollinators like bees and butterflies, leading to declining populations and a fragile food system.
The push for mass production comes at the cost of long-term sustainability. If we don’t shift toward regenerative and organic farming practices, inclusive of the meat and dairy industry, we risk losing not just soil fertility, but the health of entire ecosystems.
The shopping cart collectors are going to have their hands full.
Luckily for you all, I have invested in 1 million of these bags. They can be yours for just 7c a piece.
I know what I got. Call me.
I dropped WB Fosters since their renovation. I go Kirk’s!
No Cash Counters inside.
No Pharmacy
No Blood Pressure machine
No cafe, but have to stop for a chat or a bite outside in the car fumes.
Smoking Allowed in the seated are outside!
No respect for consumers of West Bay.
kk no one cares where you shop thanks
Yes, you can no longer get a plastic bag to put all your 90% plastic wrapped groceries in.
FFS, some really precious people here.
The plastic bags will disappear, people will adapt.
I ride a motorcycle, and have to get everything into a backpack. Just make it work, it’s not hard.
This should be a no-brainer. Reuse your plastic bags!! Guess what, they last a LONG time!! For your larger bags, buy reusable shopping bags.
Why is this so difficult to understand? It actually saves you money, and perhaps in our drop-in-the-bucket small way, saves the island/planet. Drops add up, yo?
Anyone that truly cares and wants to extend the future habitability of atmospheric conditions on this planet, needs to start by eating plants, per years of published high-confidence UN IPCC Assessment Report Mitigations. There shouldn’t even be meat and dairy sections of the store. Demand bike lanes. Walk. Decline the bag, straw, lid you don’t need.
The road layout, some idiot drivers, and the humidity in Cayman don’t make for a safe or practical cycling alternative, especially for longer distances.
Even on the Brac that is true; when we use the same road as the cars, sometimes the car drivers drive like might equals right. What I need is a bicycle with enough mass that it would mess up their cars if they hit me. Then I would be safe(r). Of course, I’d also have 27″ thighs, and that would make shopping for clothes a bit of a drag.
Like any other urban plan, hence the need for modern integration of safe bike corridors.
Go get some mental help and stop quoting #UN2030 brain rot.
The household environmental footprint needs to start at the butchered meat section of the supermarket, consuming the most water, land use, energy, ocean-polluting GHGE protein sources in any food kingdom – then procured in a long styrofoam tray, wrapped in plastic. But, no bag thanks, we’re trying to cut back.
All the comments about going to paper bags are hilarious and tells me how old the people posting are. Those of us who were born in the 70s already went through the paper to plastic shift…and have seen dozens of iterations of how the world is ending because of some climate related issue or the other
“going to paper bags”……
Aren’t we supposed to be saving the trees?
I was born in the 70s. Have no issue with paper bags.
I do, however, see the climate issues for what they are. They’re an immediate threat to the world as we know it to be, and will be disastrous for many animal species. The only upside for me is that I won’t be around to see most of the havoc.
I also would like to thank Mr Woody Foster and his team for stepping up and doing this! This is exactly what needed to be done. If we wait for the civil service to put their heads above the parapet and make a decision, then we won’t get anywhere. I fear that they are all so afraid of getting their heads shot off (not literally) from making a decision that they make no decisions! Am I wrong?
They are doing this to increase profits.
private sector again leading the way and making a mockery of cig and the civil service…
Politicians, not civil service. Thats how the system works here.
Plastic drinking straws still at Burger King .
and Popeyes and Tim Hortons
If you eat at any of those places, you’ve got far greater concerns than a few plastic straws.
more plastic in a paper straw than a plastic straw…study it
10:20, Stop drinking from the soda fountain then.
Are they removing the plastic bags at the fruit and veggie section? The ‘biodegradable’ ones that fill our food, earth and oceans with microplastics?
Just don’t use them, I don’t. Just wash the produce at home as you should anyway. Why do I need to put a mango in a plastic bag? Why can’t they have paper bags that you write a code on, like you do with the dried fruit etc.?
This is exactly why I asked the question. I’ve been asking them to use paper bags in that section for more than 10 years now.
Small produce reusable bags are also for sale, I’ve found some at Kirk market. Or, just put everything in your cart not in a bag, that’s what I’ve been doing for years. We all wash everything anyways so who cares if it’s in your cart without being in a bag. At least Fosters is taking the initiative to cut back since our govt can’t seem to work thwir way outta plastic bags!!!
Paper is the way!
And where does paper come from? The none existent trees?
No one is saying it’s the perfect solution, but paper at least biodegrades. PS. Trees do actually exist 😉
recycled paper.
They replant the tress in the same place they harvrested them from, you Dip Stick! The trees used to make paper bags are produced from trees from Tree Farms.
Yep, and with global warming, they are the perfect fuel for the ever-increasing and ever-worsening wildfires.
I love using paper bags for my vegetables that have been periodically sprinkled with water all day long while kept refrigerated.
You expect cashiers to read handwriting codes and keep the lines flowing here? Surely you see the awful state of driving here?
So many dishonest people will surely take advantage of the workers.
The small plastic bags that puts our items in at check out are NOT single use. we reuse them in our small waste baskets/pails in the bath/bed rooms. what are we to use now, small plastic bags sold for that one time use ? Just about everything that we consume are rapped in plastic, thats plastic are the one time use only.
I use the bags at the cashier for my garbage. Instead of recycling them, I am now going to have to buy trash bags made of thicker plastic .. where’s the sense in that?! Fosters carried biodegradable plastic bags about 15 years ago, why don’t they just go back to those??
You answered your question: you will buy the other bags, and Foster will make more money
They were the 5c plastic bags, just biodegradable.
Exactly. Noble idea but not practical here.
I also don’t use the plastic bags in the fruit and vegetable section. I have not done so for over 20 years. I just put my fruit and veg in the bottom of the shopping trolley. If I have to buy carrots or celery in a plastic bag I always remove the bag as soon as I get the vegetables home. Many years ago I met the daughters of the man (in the UK) who produces the ink that is used on the veg and fruit bags; he told his girls to immediately remove the produce from the bags when they got it home as the ink was toxic and the condensation through the bag was not what you want on your produce. I have taken that to heart! I now wash my produce when I get it home, wrap it in paper towel and then put it in a large green compostable zip lock bag (which Fosters at Camana Bay sell). If I am buying loose beans or mushrooms I have a couple of mesh bags that I have had for years. They always go back into the boot of my car, along with my reusable shopping bags, when I have finished unpacking my groceries. I hope that helps one or two people as it would be so wonderful to reduce our plastic use in Cayman! Our children and grandchildren will thank us for it!
Well aren’t you special. This ban only serves to hinder the income disadvantaged through virtue signaling.
GASP! A PAPER TOWEL!!!! You Monster!!
If you acquire plastic bags, reuse them at the places you got them from. ’nuff said. Reuse them until they are worthless for any application, and then let their last iteration be as a garbage bag.
Buy a few of the reusable mesh bags and keep a few in your reusable shopping bags.
THIS is great news! FYI for the take away places that still use Styrofoam containers, I’m not ordering from you as much, I won’t lie that I won’t ever order again, but the guilt I feel when I see it as well as it basically melting if I have to reheat it turns me off. DO BETTER, like Fosters!
probably not the best idea to reheat food in a Styrofoam container. You don’t have plates?
Sometimes we all want an easy way to consume food. But I hope you get the point about restaurants that still put take away in styro foam.
Wow, what idealist.
I also do not buy food from places that use Styrofoam. Coffee Point in Pasadora Place is a case in point. Love their food but I just won’t buy my lunch there because of the take out containers. It would be interesting to know where else still uses Styrofoam containers so that we can boycott those places.
You clowns might want to read the fine print on the “eco-friendly” products you be drooling over.
Compostable? Sure they are, at all the industrial composting factories we have here in Cayman.
And the real reason is for profit!
Intorducing PAPER BAGS, as Hurley’s did, would solve the issue and help customers carry their goods home.
Most people working in Cayman can’t carry a bag around with them all the time as they have NO VEHICLE! Where are they to carry the bag, In their pockets?
Tree killer!
When trees are harvested new trees are planted in there place. There’s more greens, fruits and vegetables reproduced now due to farming to feed the too many people on our planet.
Go tell your tale to the Amazonian tribes.
“new trees are planted in there place”…
Seedlings perhaps, that take x years to mature before they can produce anything for consumption?
Ever heard of recycled paper bags?
Hurley’s paper bags are terrible – the handles are not fixed on properly and I have had to scoop up my groceries off the pavement several times!!!!
Then carry the bags like we did in 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s!!!!
Carry them??? How old-fashioned in this time and age. Why on earth doesn’t Hurley’s just get better paper bags. They exist.
And they get squishy if you have wet stuff inside. Ugh.
WELL DONE FOSTERS
Well not done.