To my surprise, all the announcements and bans to eliminate single-use plastic, that is “scandal bags”, food containers, and plastic straws, have made little or no impact on our fight to protect the environment.

Indeed, the ban on plastic resulted in increased costs and inconveniences to consumers. But we all did it with a smile, under the impression that we were seriously helping the environment.

Now, we’ve learned in the new report that the ban on specific plastics now accounts for a “minuscule 0.03 per cent of the character of our waste”.

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) says that the data to track the challenges or success is not currently available, but it’s reasonable to deduce that the weight of a plastic bag and straw is minuscule to that of a plastic bottle. It would appear that none of our efforts have reduced our plastic waste problem by even 1 per cent.

This was the information presented to us by the NSWMA at the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee as they reported on plastic and non-biodegradable solid waste in Jamaica.

The NSWMA is the entity responsible for garbage collection and disposal islandwide. It received $3.858 billion for recurrent expenditure in this year’s budget, $2.292 billion of which goes directly to public cleansing and garbage disposal. Yet, “Recycling initiatives across the island are primarily the activities of private entities. As such, the revenues generated from their activities is currently unavailable from our authority,” said Audley Gordon, NSWMA executive director.

Based on the last NSWMA ‘Waste Characterization Study’, we were advised that the annual generation of plastic waste was 183,368,636 kg in 2022, which represents nearly 17 per cent of our total solid waste annually. Based on our population, this equates to 147 pounds of plastic garbage per person annually.

A published The Gleaner article on February 12, 2022 stated that 1,593,331 kg of plastic bottles reached Recycling Partners of Jamaica (RPJ) collection centres, equivalent to 161 million 500 ml bottles.

By RPJ’s estimate, Jamaica produces around 800 million plastic bottles annually. Therefore, we are capturing less than a quarter of the bottles produced, and that’s only 500 ml bottles, not to mention bottles made for the 1-gallon milk and juice containers and the 2-litre ones for water bottles and soft drinks.

Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) delved deeper, arguing that Jamaica imports 350 bottles per person of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containers, that’s a further 945 million units going into the dump.

Therefore, the real elephant in the room, as agreed by the NSWMA, is plastic bottles. If we are serious about protecting our environment, we need a focused policy addressing this issue.

To be sure, the disposal of plastic waste is a major international and national problem, and we need a long-term solution.

More than one million plastic beverage bottles are sold each minute of the day globally.

The plastic bottle has gone from a miracle container to the world’s most hated garbage. In fact, the tiny towns of Concord, Massachusetts, and Bundannoon, Australia, have banned basic bottles, as have numerous public parks, museums, universities, and zoos in Europe and the United States.

Additionally, in June 2020, Kenya announced a ban on single-use plastics at beaches and national parks, forests, and conservation areas.

In the United States, less than 30 per cent of bottles are recycled, while in Norway, 97 per cent.

Today, according to the Plastics Industry Association, plastic bottles and jars represent about 75 per cent of all plastic containers by weight.

The efforts of RPJ are welcome; however, the relationship between the NSWMA is referred to as a public-private partnership, but, to my mind, only one side of this partnership is generating income while the other side is incurring a significant portion of the expenses.

Many countries worldwide practise a deposit return scheme, where there are financial incentives to return used plastic containers for recycling. These schemes are designed to reduce litter, encourage recycling, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby protecting the environment.

The Jamaican economy is highly dependent on tourism, so we have an extra incentive and responsibility to protect the environment.

There are heavy taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. The Government has justified these taxes because these products are more likely to add to the public health cost and then require a larger share of the Government’s budget to fund.

There are indirect consequences and costs associated with these products. Perhaps it’s time for us to consider a small tax on producing these plastic bottles because of the increased cost the public has to incur to dispose of them safely.

There is also an economic opportunity here. While many of our used bottles are exported to other countries for recycling, investing in a local plant would be viable. Currently, recycled plastic is used to manufacture other bottles, fence posts, tiles, flooring, boats, and housing.

Pepsi, Nestle, and Coke have all pledged to increase their use of recycled plastic by 25 per cent to 50 per cent by 2025; perhaps they or their agents could be investors.

What’s more, attendant legislation is needed to make this a reality, which has languished for over 20 years. On May 17, 2022, the Office of Parliamentary Counsel submitted revised drafts of:

(1) The National Solid Waste Management (Public Cleanliness) Regulations 2022;

(2) The National Solid Waste Management (Hazardous Waste) (Electronic Waste) Regulations 2022;

(3) The National Solid Waste Management (Disposal Facilities) Regulations 2022; and

(4) The National Solid Waste Management (Fixed Penalties) Regulations 2022

Yet, the regulations are not passed, and without them the NSWMA hands are tied.

Therefore, with all the new announcements about 50 new garbage trucks in the system with another 50 on the way, unless we have a robust national policy for garbage separation at source for collection, along with said separation for disposal at dumps for recycling, then we are really not serious at protecting our environment.

As a small island, we are playing catchup on far too many things that affect our lives. It’s time to have a no-nonsense approach to dealing with our nation’s garbage. If not, as these new papers reported last week, we will only continue to “talk rubbish”.