Cabinet has approved the issuance of drafting instructions for a prohibition order to legally restrict the importation of eight types of single-use plastics into the Cayman Islands.
They are: small plastic grocery check-out bags, plastic individual-use straws, plastic stir sticks, polystyrene cups, plastic chopsticks, plastic helium filled balloons and related balloon sticks, sky lanterns and polystyrene clamshell food containers.
The order will be active under the Customs and Border Control Act, according to a summary of Cabinet’s 27 June meeting issued on 6 July.
Premier Wayne Panton, Minister of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency, said Cabinet’s approval is an important milestone in the effort to implement a single-use plastics ban.
“Plastic pollution is a serious, global issue requiring international cooperation to address,” he said, “and the Cayman Islands is stepping up to the challenge by doing our part to reduce our collective consumption of single-use plastic items.”
Panton explained that once the prohibition order is published in the Gazette, there will be a transitional period of 12 months to help businesses adapt.
“We are pleased to see so many local businesses who are already taking steps to provide plastic-free alternatives and increase their recycling,” the premier added.
The ministry worked with Customs and Border Control to engage with private and public sector representatives while building the Cabinet proposal.
In a statement on 7 July, the ministry said it will share more detailed timelines as the legal drafting process advances.
Slow progress
Plans for a single-use plastic ban have been in the works for several years.
In February 2020, a government-led stakeholder committee said it would be recommending legislation be implemented to ban five types of single-use plastics from January 2021.
These were single-use shopping bags, polystyrene takeaway containers, plastic straws, plastic stirrers and plastic cotton swabs.
But a month later, the project was put on hold as the COVID-19 pandemic struck the Cayman Islands, and protecting the public’s health became the government’s priority.
A year-and-a-half later, Premier Wayne Panton, in his first budget address in November 2021, said his new government was ready to move forward with the ban.
But it was not until May 2022 that the government revealed the ministry was preparing to re-form a steering committee to continue work on the plastics ban.
It said the committee’s recommendations would be presented to Cabinet by the end of June 2022, with the ministry providing legislative drafting by the end of August last year.
The first update in a year on a potential ban came after the ministry was asked to comment on an image of a green sea turtle eating plastic wrap in the water near Spotts Public Beach.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated on 7 July 2023 to include comment from Premier Wayne Panton.
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Plastic supermarket bags must top the list , 60-70 per cent of our lazy consumers contribute tens of thousands of these to the dump each day. This was mooted in Feb 2020 and once again Govt is dragging it’s feet.