BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Barbados has launched its National Action Plan to End Plastics Pollution, indicating also that that legislation on single-use, petrol based plastics would be tabled in Parliament.
Minister of the Environment and National Beautification, Adrian Forde, and Executive Director of Common Seas, Dr. Charlotte Davies looking over the National Action Plan to End Plastics Pollution (BGIS Photo)Environment and National Beautification, Green and Blue Economy Minister, Adrian Forde, told the launch ceremony that approximately “500 tons of single-use plastics are sold every month, and they are distributed not only into our landfills but, unfortunately, across the length and breadth of our country”.
The government said that the National Action Plan to End Plastics Pollution incorporates five key policy interventions, considered to have maximum impact in the fight against plastics pollution.
Thes strategies involve the phasing out of single-use plastic bottles, by integrating the installation of water refill points; gradually eliminating single-use plastic bags; and the removal of other single-use plastic items, such as takeaway food containers, straws, and lids.
They also include the implementation of ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’, which will drive source separation when national recycling is started, and the use of downstream measures, such as enhanced on-the-go and bulk waste collections, together with improved enforcement against illegal dumping and littering.
Forde said in the environmental, health battle against plastics, he was encouraging “a sense of ownership of our country to ensure that we do the right thing for other generations to come”.
