Jamaica joined the club.
In a new study in July 2018, the U.N. confirmed that 127 (or 66%) of the countries they surveyed have implemented some type of policy to regulate plastic bags.
Come January 1, the Jamaican Government will commence imposition of the ban on the importation, manufacture, distribution and use of specific categories of plastic packaging material.
They include single-use plastic carrier/shopping bags; expanded polystyrene, commonly called Styrofoam; and plastic drinking straws, which are often improperly discarded, causing significant harm to the environment.
CBEI welcomes the historic move.
But there is big BUT. Plastic bottles were left out of the mix. The ban will deal with a lot of other things, but what about plastic bottles? As you can see if you drive alongside Palisadoes that the tremendous pollution in the bay is makeup by a large portion of plastic bottles.
But WHY Single Use Plastic Ban - - without bottles?
Maybe they like to introduce a bottle return policy – like they have for glass bottle. Who knows? There were some articles recently where Minister Vaz said the Government is seeking to devise a Deposit Refund Scheme supported by legislation to address the use and recycling of polyethylene terephthalate or PET bottles.