It seems that – not for the first time – little Saba is running ahead of many other islands. The Executive Council in The Bottom signed an agreement with the Dutch government to phase out single-use plastics (see related story).
St. Maarten has been talking about the same thing for years. First there had been initiative draft legislation to prohibit plastic shopping bags that did not make it past the Council of Advice. Then an amendment to the General Police Ordinance to establish such a ban was submitted, but so far has not been realised.
What’s more, the proposed law change only regards single-use bags, with the intention to add cups, cutlery, straws and other environment-unfriendly throw-away items like Styrofoam containers later. Nevertheless, the same approach was successfully applied in Aruba and there is no reason to believe it can’t work here.
Especially lacking both the means and scale needed to make local recycling of such materials feasible, it is best not to sell them at all. A survey by Nature Foundation suggests popular support for such.
Mind you, Saba too is taking just the first step in drafting a plan and legislation with technical assistance from the Netherlands including a contribution of 40,000 euros, but at least a commitment to start implementation in 2020 has been made. That’s the kind of determination most people in St. Maarten are also looking for on this issue.
Even food stores, bars and restaurants as well as other businesses have already voluntarily sought alternatives to the harmful products in question. The latter alone should be an indication that the move is long overdue
