Saint Lucia did it in December last year, Barbados and Jamaica followed suit in January. In total, 14 Caribbean islands have now banned, or tabled plans to ban, single-use plastic and styrofoam. Saint Lucia’s war against this type of debris has been waging for a while. In March 2018 the Cabinet met to consider proposals for phasing out styrofoam food containers and removing the import duty on biodegradable versions, as well as completely banning single-use plastic shopping bags. The latter attracted buy-in from the private sector, with Massy Stores launching its own campaign in July last year to promote reusable shopping bags.
Saint Lucia’s phased roll-out of styrofoam food service containers and plastics began in December 2018 with a total ban on their importation set to be implemented by the end of 2019. The move was welcomed by public and private sector bodies including the
Saint Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association, the Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce and the Saint Lucia National Trust.
Pollution fears
Plastic and expanded polystyrene (styrofoam) are now widely recognised as one of the most pervasive, and damaging, types of marine debris. Whether it’s sea turtles choking on straws, foraging gulls chewing on plastic strips or fish being caught in plastic bags, life below the waves is definitely taking the brunt of human wastefulness.
And plastic has contaminated all of the world’s waterways, with fragments found in the Arctic sea and the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to US conservation group, Plastic Oceans, almost 300 million tons of plastic are produced each year, half of which is single use, and more than 8 million tons are dumped into the oceans. In addition, around 500 billion plastic bags are used around the world with more than a million in use every minute. These bags are used for approximately 15 minutes before being discarded — by roadsides, on beaches and in the water. The sheer scale of plastic and styrofoam use, combined with Saint Lucia’s growing litter epidemic, paints a grim picture.
Push-back
Virtually everyone in Saint Lucia and the Caribbean would admit that the region has a plastic and polystyrene problem, but not everyone is onboard with a legislative solution. While the war on plastic has caught the public imagination, few headlines are devoted to the cost to manufacturers and consumers, and fewer still consider whether such bans actually achieve their goal.
There’s a reason food service companies have been using plastic and styrofoam for years — it’s generally cheaper and less resource-intensive than the supposedly environmentally friendly alternatives. Concerned about the potential costs of reforming production processes, which would obviously negatively impact small businesses more than large-scale corporations, representatives from the Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce met with the Department of Sustainable Development in December. Chamber Executive Director Brian Louisy wants to see government incentivise the move towards more biodegradable packaging alternatives and said revising import duties and other charges on environmentally friendly products would help. He also called for clarity on the phase-out period, and continuing collaboration with industry as the importation ban comes into effect.
Bio alternatives
Of course, many commentators argue that the cost involved in switching out styrofoam and plastics is worth it for the environmental benefits, but is this actually the case? According to Utah State University researchers William Shughart and Camille Harmer, manufacturing a disposable paper cup uses at least 20 per cent more fossil fuels and almost 50 per cent more electricity than a styrofoam cup. In addition, paper cups and bags create more waste, water and air pollution than expanded polystyrene.
But there are more alternatives than paper. In response to the move away from plastics and styrofoam, many firms are now developing compostable packaging. Most of the materials with this label are made from Polylactic Acid (PLA), a type of plastic derived from plant material rather than oil. While this might sound eco-friendly to the average consumer, PLA items don’t just sit in landfills and quickly and quietly return to the soil. Certified compostable products are generally broken down under intense heat at a specialised industrial facility, none of which exists in Saint Lucia.
For Saint Lucian social entrepreneur Wayne Neale, founder of recycling firm Greening the Caribbean, the biggest issue is not plastics or their alternatives but overall waste reduction. Caribbean landfills are already stretched to capacity; simply switching out one material for another does nothing to reduce the volume of waste generated in the region. “What replaces plastic and styrofoam?” he asks. “That material still goes to landfill and a ban does not impact litter reduction. If the disposal practices are the same, the litter is still going to be there.”
A better waste strategy
Neale believes that combatting the Caribbean’s waste woes will take more than just a single piece of legislation. “I’m not enthusiastic about the idea of banning plastics and styrofoam because it is not being done in a holistic fashion across the Caribbean,” he says. “It is attacking just one item of a broader environmental waste mismanagement crisis. Every time you see a ban, it seems like an isolated action that is not linked to sustainable practices. The ban by itself is not enough; it needs to fit into a climate-smart, sustainable waste management system.”
Rather than directing their focus and resources to banning undesirable materials, Neale would like to see Caribbean governments support leaders in the private sector who are developing innovative ways to repurpose waste. He says: “We need more financing and resources available for entrepreneurs who are creatively addressing the issue of waste. To affect the change we would all like to see, you need change-makers who are willing to do the hard work to address the environmental crisis.”
With environmental experts calling for a more nuanced approach to waste management, it’s clear that a ban on plastics and polystyrene is just one piece of a very complicated puzzle. Developing a better waste strategy requires plans supported by in-depth analysis and hard data, with recognition of the role that both the public and private sectors can play. Ultimately it’s a lesson in getting back to the basics: reduce, reuse and recycle.
