Senator
Matthew Samuda stirred up quite a storm in the Senate. The spirit of the motion
continues.
Senator
Matthew Samuda motion was finally passed in the Senate on Friday October 7th
2016 as reported in the article “Jamaica
Closer To Banning Plastic Bag, Styrofoam”, published Saturday October 8,
2016 by Jovan Johnson, The Jamaica
Gleaner.
G2K
(Generation 2000) president Senator Matthew Samuda made his Private Member's
Motion on Friday April 22nd 2016, with a focus mainly on Styrofoam
as reported in my blog article
entitled “How
JA$100 for recycling 500ml Plastic bottles and Styrofoam Ban will save Jamaica's
Environment”.
However, since pictures of garbage causing blockages in the drainage system in Kingston during the passage of Hurricane Matthew have gone viral and the damage to Marcus Garvey Drive, the need to do something about plastics has also become urgent.
In his debate, Senator Matthew Samuda pointed out that it was cheaper to ban non-biodegradable bags and Styrofoam than to continue using them. Already Guyana has banned importation of styrofoam as of Friday April 1st 2016 as noted in my blog article entitled “Why Guyana banning Styrofoam and How Jamaican Bee farmers can benefit”.
The
approved motion is to go to a multi-stakeholder committee. This will be under
Minister Daryl Vaz environment portfolio in the economic and growth ministry in
the Office of the Prime Minister. Hopefully, we'll soon join Guyana in banning
styrofoam importation, preferably with legislation with Police enforcement and
heavy fines.
JA$100,000
for people caught using or throwing away plastic and styrofoam is a good place
to start. but improving the collection and sorting of garbage and increasing
the return values of plastics to encourage their recycling as argued in my blog article
entitled “How
JA$100 for recycling 500ml Plastic bottles and Styrofoam Ban will save
Jamaica's Environment” is better for
the environment in the next 500 years.
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