The total title of this wonderful article by Emma Lewis (for International Voices) is “As Earth Day approaches, the Caribbean continues its battle with a tidal wave of plastic however stays hopeful.” She writes that “the statistics are alarming, however there are strenuous efforts to stem the tide of plastic.” Learn full article at International Voices.
Are we dwelling on a plastic planet? Within the Caribbean, the issue typically appears overwhelming: gullies choked with plastic, tourism magnificence spots plagued by trash, casual rubbish dumps showing on city sidewalks, plastic washing up on seashores, and complaints about insufficient rubbish disposal and assortment.
Below the floor, divers encounter their justifiable share of plastic, performing common underwater cleanups, through programmes comparable to Curaçao’s Dive Towards Particles. Marine lifetime of all types is affected, together with seabirds, which scientists say are affected by plasticosis.
A blanket of plastics and different waste envelops the shoreline adjoining to Shoemaker Gully, earlier than Kingston Harbour Cleanup Challenge volunteers started their cleanup on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Photograph by Khristina Godfrey, used with permission.
Moreover, plastic waste is commonly blamed for exacerbating the consequences of flooding in the course of the wet season, in regional territories likes Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, contributing to pure disasters. The present and future influence on tourism — one other supply of plastic waste — and different marine-related actions is nearly incalculable. Latest reviews have famous the escalating scale of the issue for each coastal communities and island economies.
In line with the United Nations Atmosphere Programme, about 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally yearly, with the speed of plastic manufacturing accelerating because the Nineteen Seventies. The statistics are disturbing:
Roughly 36 per cent of all plastics produced are utilized in packaging, together with single-use plastic merchandise for meals and beverage containers, roughly 85 p.c of which find yourself in landfills or as unregulated waste.
Moreover, some 98 p.c of single-use plastic merchandise are produced from fossil gasoline, or “virgin” feedstock. The extent of greenhouse fuel emissions related to the manufacturing, use and disposal of typical fossil fuel-based plastics is forecast to develop to 19 p.c of the worldwide carbon finances by 2040.
Whereas the statistics are alarming, strenuous efforts are being made, each globally and throughout the Caribbean, to stem the tide of plastic.
In March 2022, the fifth United Nations Atmosphere Meeting in Nairobi agreed to work in direction of a world UN Plastics Treaty and to forge a global legally binding settlement by 2024. Some key points stay to be resolved when negotiators meet once more in Paris, France from Might 29 to June 2, 2023. Environmental organisations comparable to Greenpeace are hoping for a powerful settlement to emerge, with two priorities:
An instantaneous cap on virgin plastic manufacturing to 2017 ranges, adopted by important, yearly growing reductions within the manufacturing and use of plastic. An finish to single-use plastics, beginning with probably the most pointless and dangerous.
Globally, NGOs are doing their greatest to lift consciousness and discover inventive options. Lonely Whale, for instance, partnered with dressmaker Tom Ford to award the TOM FORD Plastic Innovation Prize, concentrating on a particular kind of plastic (conventional thin-film plastic polybags) and searching for sustainable options. Winners had been introduced final month.
Regardless of the gloomy image, it’s truthful to say that the Caribbean can also be preventing again towards plastic, and is discovering that on this effort partnerships are efficient. [. . .]
Plastic bans by some Caribbean governments on some forms of plastics are already in place. A ban on single-use plastic luggage, straws and polystyrene took impact in Jamaica on January 1, 2019, and the minister accountable mentioned just lately that an extra ban on merchandise containing microbeads, in addition to the ever present plastic meals containers which have changed styrofoam, is into account within the coming yr. Antigua and Barbuda even have an identical plan in place, and different Caribbean nations have slowly come on board with bans. Issues about microplastics persist, nonetheless, and the image is incomplete.
Regardless of considerations that many of the world’s plastic, within the US for instance, might not be totally recyclable, Caribbean nations proceed to press forward with ongoing recycling programmes, providing cash for bottles handed in. A pilot mission in Trinidad and Tobago goals to recycle 20 p.c of its plastic bottles by 2025. Recycling Companions of Jamaica collected 125 million bottles (six million kilos or 2.7 million kilograms) in 2022 and is vastly increasing its attain, together with assortment capability, this yr. The organisation has mentioned that its depots are “overwhelmed” with bottles and that it’s observing an amazing enthusiasm amongst residents to take part. [. . .]
For full article, see https://globalvoices.org/2023/04/21/as-earth-day-approaches-the-caribbean-continues-its-struggle-with-a-tidal-wave-of-plastic-but-remains-hopeful/
Additionally see Petchary’s Weblog.
[Photo by Khristina Godfrey. Members of Jamaica’s Greenwich Town Fisherfolk Benevolent Society were instrumental in removing waste floating on the water’s surface during The Kingston Harbour Cleanup Project’s beach cleanup on April 1, 2023.]