How Plastic Bottles and Styrofoam may soon be banned in Jamaica

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 7^th 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 22^nd 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 1^st 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.