Gordon Barlow

I see that Grenada, Dominica and Jamaica have just passed laws banning some or all of single-use plastic bags, plastic straws and styrofoam. Can anybody tell me how that's working out, in all three islands? Cayman doesn't have any such law yet - and it's highly unlikely our rulers will ban styrofoam***, but there's bound to be some kind of plastics ban, and I'd like to be ready for it.
*** Ken Dart is our #1 investor and benefactor, and owns the world's biggest manufacturer of styrofoam products. So it would be pretty rude and ungrateful to ban the fount of his financial resources!

Gordon Barlow

https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/08/ban...lastic-problem
There's still talk here in Cayman about banning plastic straws and plastic bags, but nothing about all the myriad other uses of plastic. Indeed, as I sit here at my desktop computer, I have within reach the following things made (at least partially) of plastic:- keyboard, screen, computer, console, mouse and pad, printer, speakers, office chair, stapler, earphones, sundry cords, flip-flops and shoes, stand-up fan, three surge-suppressors, TV and remote, phone set, a travel bag, shoes, and five ball-point pens. All those things must be infinitely more threatening to the health of the planet than the plastic bags and straws in the kitchen, so is it worth while holding myself aloof from the latter? I can't be the only person reading this thread who finds it hard to get indignant about plastic-use, when so many manufacturers are going full-blast ahead with it. Modern life would quickly grind to a halt, if we dispensed with everything that contains plastic.

Any thoughts on the matter?

scot47

It is an interesting exercise to do a plastic audit. One way of doing is to put aside the disposable plastic that you would normally throw out. At the end of the montth look at what you have.

Gordon Barlow

Scot, I was surprised at how many objects I identified when I was writing my post! And all those were just within my reach! It's pretty much a hopeless task, to remove all plastic from my life - which is why I am strongly inclined to ignore the calls to stop using plastic shopping bags. We already collect "recyclables" and take them out to the official bins out at the supermarket, and yes it is quite a bundle. Sigh. What to do?

scot47

The ban on plastic bags - or where I live the 5 pence levy - is f*rting against the wind, but we have to start somewhere. I was made aware of this idea of "plastic-free" by an ultra-lefty super-green pal in Berlin. When I look at my daily use od disposables just for blood sugar monitoring and insulin usage, I know how difficult it will be !

uk_grenada

Gordon Barlow

Also... those plastic shopping bags do not last for 400 years, as the early warnings used to tell us. If you shove them in a drawer for 12 months they fall apart. So I don't think they are much of a danger to the world and our environment. If I ran the world (and were really, really worried about the over-use of plastics) I would select something more dangerous and less long-lasting than shopping bags and plastic straws. I'd probably start with that tough plastic covering-stuff that requires a very sharp pair of scissors to cut away.

uk_grenada

uk_grenada

scot47

The latest fad here is to ban plastic straws. If we were serious about the whole thing we would ban private cars and make it illegal to have more than 2 children.

uk_grenada

BEVS

I'm quite surprised by the lack of knowledge displayed here , or is that a bit deliberate in some way.

It is not just where plastic bags end up that is an issue. It is also the way that plastic bags degrade that is the problemo here. Same ref. straws . Balloons etc.

Yes. I totally agree Scot47. People need to start wanting less. Not opt for the cheap easy options & not be so throwaway all the time.

Using a plastic bag more than once doesn't make it OK. That bag will still degrade in a way to harm the environment, ecosystems and wildlife.

If people want a natural world - any sort of remaining natural world - for the future then something needs to give and we might as well start small if that is what it takes and start now, right now.

uk_grenada

Gordon Barlow

The above is from an earlier post of mine. Bev, you criticised my lack of knowledge, yet you failed to put your own knowledge out there. What plastic items do you have within reach, which you could and should do without? I'd be interested to know what other BE members have within reach, too. Believe me, there is a world of plastic stuff besides shopping bags and straws, and a lot more dangerous. I don't think there is any virtue in limiting our concern to those petty items.

uk_grenada

Plastics - polymers are valuable - a good use of oil or cellulose (yes you can make plastics and detergents from plants too) and much better than just burning these things in our car engines. Plastics should be freely used, but recycled where possible into other useful things.

As previously said, if you buy into the new eco warrior chant 'save the whale, buy soup in cardboard' you are deluded imho. Be sensible, use materials sensibly, recycle where possible, but you know what, on small caribbean islands we cant do an aweful lot of that, we must make careful choices about what we let arrive here and what we make people take home. In the maldives hotels have had signs for decades - take your batteries home, we cant recycle them, they poison our waters, but yet now - lets drive cars on small islands with thousands of LITHIUM batteries that will never be exported...