Time to enforce a ban on plastic bags

Jun 04, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

Last Friday, after attending a funeral service, I stopped to purchase two packets of envelopes. The clerk placed it in a plastic bag that could easily hold ten times my purchase. Later, I purchased a clinical thermometer, a vial of eyedrop, two small items again placed in a large plastic bag.

I recall in the late 90s as Mayor, faced with empty plastic bags that clogged waterways that constituted an ugly appearance and being environmentally unfriendly, I proposed a ban on plastic bags. The idea was to utilise biodegradable bags and containers to use instead of plastic bags.

I recall contacting persons in the business community and discussing this change of approach. One business entity had an office in Regent Street, not far from City Hall and advised that they had in stock samples of biodegradable bags and were prepared to bring in large quantities of this environmentally friendly material. I raised this question at a Meeting with the then Minister of Local Government and other Government Officials to put in place the appropriate legislation to ban plastic bags. After some time, I was told that certain business firms had approached the Government not to support this idea because they had large stocks of plastic bags and more on the way. That’s more than two decades ago and I believe, looking around urban and rural communities, it is a project that should be pursued without delay, even though I was told earlier that these biodegradable bags and containers may cost a little more, it is to the benefit of all concerned.

Earlier, I visited with one of my daughters who lives in Antigua, I accompanied her to a supermarket, but before entering the building, she extracted from the trunk of the car a large cloth bag and a basket made of straw/tibisiri or bamboo, similar to the ones I recalled putting at the back of my bicycle to put my shopping in on Saturday mornings. I recommend for consideration the banning of plastic bags and the use of biodegradable containers and to get shoppers to walk with cloth or canvas bags. I hope those who are really concerned about the environment take note and act with alacrity.

So extensive has the use of plastic become that it has been found in the human male reproductive system, the placenta and even in the blood. We human beings are the consequence of the totality of the environment.

Dear Editor and citizens, in the interest of our environment, the human race and the appearance of the town and countryside, I urge that consideration be given to the proposal made more than twenty five years ago, to ban plastic and to use friendly biodegradable containers therefore to phase out what I consider indiscriminate and destructive use of plastic.

Sincerely
Hamilton Green
Elder

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