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Time for Guyana to move away completely from plastic

Jun 19, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Now that the entire nation of Guyana feels the effects of the floods, which are partly due to clogged gutters and trenches with plastic materials, it is time for the government to put an actual date to an official plastic ban like other countries that have been successful at this initiative.
Guyana is on the edge of officially banning single use-plastics and following the growing global trend in the direction of no longer using single use plastic bags. The Guyanese population has gone beyond needing to be “sensitised”. Worldwide, governments in the developing world including EU countries are banning the use of single use plastic bags in some form or another and the business community has taken the lead in urgently rolling out eco-friendly alternatives. In the United States which took the lead in this change of direction, over 10 years ago, single use plastic bags in grocery stores are a thing of the past. Customers have the option at the checkout counter of either a paper bag or paying an extremely small price for a branded store bag that is non-plastic. The majority of Guyanese in the United States, live on the East Coast, predominantly in New York and Florida. All major grocery stores in those states gravitated to non-plastic bags for their customers years ago and it worked effectively. In countries where this issue has been a success, no store regardless of size is using “biodegradable” bags either.
The purpose of an official ban should be three-fold. Firstly, to promote our local Guyanese businesses that can play a part in this conversion by offering alternatives; secondly, to inform citizens to pivot to non-single use plastic bags, which is proving to be better for our environment, and importantly to attempt to keep our waterways less clogged with plastic items. As Guyana is in the process of transforming its economy, why not also be at the forefront in the South American continent on this issue. Again, there are already small enterprises on the ground, including individuals on the ground to be part of the solution to move us forward, in joining the rest of the global community on this critical issue. The advantage we have as a small population is that the rollout is likely to be a success quickly, if done properly. As an oil producing country, it makes no sense to play catch up.
As grocery stores for example have already invested in purchasing plastic bags, those bags can still be used to separate certain food items, for a certain time, but Guyana needs to look at the bigger picture. In the United States and Europe that have made a success of this switch, shoppers also separate food items-but plastic bags are not used for that purpose either.
Guyana has to evolve with the rest of the world on this simple issue. (For any questions and interests from grocery and other consumer stores as it relates to converting to non-plastics bags, please send inquiries to [email protected].)

Yours Truly,
Jacqueline C. Kansi

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