Specific single-use plastic products could be banned under legislation currently being drawn up by government.
Replying to a question from opposition member Roy Tatum on the issue in Parliament, Minister of District Administration and Home Affairs Nickolas DaCosta said that, in honour of Earth Day, Cabinet had granted approval to amend current laws to prohibit the importation of specific single-use plastics, as well as to provide for an exception to allow temporary importation of single-use plastics in emergency situations.
The specific items were, he said, among the most widely used single-use plastic items across the Cayman Islands. The list comprised: small plastic grocery checkout bags (but not large plastic shopping bags from hardware or department stores), plastic single-use straws, plastic stir sticks, polystyrene cups, plastic chopsticks, plastic helium-filled balloons and related balloon sticks, sky lanterns and polystyrene clamshell food containers.
List not finalised
The list, said DaCosta, was not intended to be exhaustive, and government was committed to a thorough public consultation process in which it would listen to views from all sectors of society before finalising the proposed legislation.
Said DaCosta, “We are committed to meaningful engagement with businesses, residents and other interested parties, and recognise the importance of allowing adequate time for individuals and organisations to minimise any disruption and prepare for future changes.”
He added, “By taking action now through a measured and collaborative approach, the Cayman Islands has an opportunity to preserve the beauty of our islands, protect the natural environment that is central to our way of life and economy, and help ensure that future generations inherit a cleaner and more sustainable Cayman Islands.”
The move is more than five years after a previous administration drew up its own list of potentially-banned items. The PPM government under then-Premier Alden McLaughlin said in February 2020 that there was unanimous agreement to include legislation that would restrict certain items like single-use check-out shopping bags, polystyrene take-away containers, plastic straws, plastic stirrers and plastic cotton swabs.
The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, all implemented bans at the start of 2020 on the use and import of single-use plastic and polystyrene.
A month after later, the project was put on hold as the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
A year-and-a-half later, then-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.
Balloon debate
In 2023, the then-Cabinet approved the drafting of legislation to restrict the importation of specific types of single-use plastics into the Cayman Islands, the same items listed by Minster DaCosta in Parliament on Tuesday.
A year later, government said that it was removing plastic helium-filled balloons and their sticks from the prohibited list “due to the current lack of sustainable alternatives for these items.”
To date, no legislation banning any single-use plastic items had been enacted.
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