KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Government is to complete a Regulatory Impact Assessment and National Strategy and Action Plan for integrated waste management for Jamaica, in the upcoming financial year.

This is to be carried out under the Plastic Waste Minimisation Project, which seeks to enhance the capacity of the country to carry out integrated waste management and strengthen the policy and legislative framework to reduce and manage plastic marine litter from land-based activities in an environmentally sound manner.

A sum of $32.9 million has been allotted in the 2021/22 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, to undertake project activities for the period.

It is also anticipated that for the upcoming fiscal year, under a project, a Consumption and Production Strategy and Action Plan and Green Economy Strategy will be completed and intervention implemented in the community along the waterway of the project site.

Up to December 2020, a Final Regulatory Impact Assessment on Plastics and Polystyrene was completed, first draft of the Green Economy Investment Strategy and Action Plan was finalized, and a plastic waste collection truck was purchased.

The project is being implemented by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) with funding from the Government of Jamaica and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

Following several extensions, the project, which began in July 2018, is scheduled to end in June 2021.