CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie has repeated her clarion call for greater urgency and collaboration between policymakers and the public to reduce the improper disposal of plastics — mainly bottles — to help curb the country’s pollution.

Speaking at the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) Day media launch on Wednesday, Rodriquez-Moodie lamented that Jamaica continues to show high levels of plastic waste along its coastlines despite there being programmes in place to tackle this.

Rodriguez-Moodie pointed to the 2023 ICC Global Report, in which Jamaica recorded the third-highest number of plastic bottles collected worldwide, and charged that Jamaicans should not be proud of this.

“This is not a milestone to celebrate. It signals an ongoing problem with plastic pollution in our country, and despite a voluntary deposit refund scheme, bottles are continuing to flood our beaches and our water ways” said Rodriguez-Moodie.

The environmental activist hailed the Government, and other contributory parties, for the implementation of a ban on some plastic products which is now in its fourth phase with further restrictions on single-use items such as food containers, and micro plastics in cosmetics.

However, she noted that while there has been significant reduction in some plastic since the introduction of the ban in 2019, the worrying issue that still persists, is the improper disposal of plastic bottles.

“The data has shown that there has been a notable reduction in plastic straws, bags, and we know that plastic bags, for example, are banned, and foam food containers — we tend to call them Styrofoam — are banned.

“But the real challenge remains; plastic bottles are still the number one item collected year in, year out, every single year,” she said.

Rodriguez-Moodie argued that while the use of governmental policies, clean-ups, and recycling initiatives do help the problem, they do not offer an absolute solution.

She added that collaboration, educational campaigns, and the reduction in the usage of the material is the way to solve the island’s plastic crisis.

“We need stronger action to address the production, use and disposal of these items…The data is clear: clean-ups help, but we need stronger upstream solutions, including expanding and enforcing bans on problematic plastic packaging.

“We need to strengthen the deposit refund scheme. We need to reduce the production and importation of single-use plastics, and very importantly, we need to be increasing public education especially around plastics linked to fossil fuels and the climate crisis,” declared the JET head.

She urged Jamaicans to consider the effects of climate change, understand how improper waste disposal inevitably worsens the weather crisis, and to make it their duty to lower plastic use.

“The most effective action we can take with this plastic crisis that the whole entire world is facing, and also Jamaica, is to reduce the overall use of plastic and focus on affordable, environmentally friendly alternatives,” added Rodriguez-Moodie.