PHILIPSBURG--A draft initiative law to ban single-use plastic bags is ready for submission to Parliament by initiative-taker Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams. The draft law, aimed at curbing the single-use plastic bag pollution in the country, still has quite a way to go before it actually makes those bags disappear.
The law, when submitted to Parliament, has to be forwarded to the Council of Advice for review. The Council’s comments and recommendations will require a response from Wescot-Williams. Thereafter, the law will have its first tabling in a meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament, the fact-finding and investigative sitting of the legislature. A plenary sitting of Parliament will follow, during which the law will be up for approval.
If met with Parliament’s approval, the law will go to the Council of Ministers to co-sign. The Ombudsman will have six weeks to ensure the law does not conflict with the country’s Constitution. If no conflicts are found, the law can then enter into force.
The draft initiative law to tackle the plastic pollution is not the first of its kind. One draft was submitted in the early days of Parliament by MP Frans Richardson and now-former MP Johan “Janchie” Leonard. That law did not progress further than the Council of Advice.
The Wescot-Williams initiative has taken a different approach than the Richardson/Leonard one. The new initiative law seeks to tag the plastic bag ban to the General Police Ordinance as is the case in Aruba, rather than create a new structure and approach.
