PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) applauds the initiative to legally ban single-use plastic bags as proposed by Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams via a draft initiative law soon to be submitted to Parliament. SHTA wants the draft law expanded to also ban Styrofoam products.
SHTA said it is important to ban plastic bags and Styrofoam as part of curbing the country’s “gigantic waste challenge.”
In a press statement, SHTA encouraged Parliament to consider campaigns to change both consumer and retailer behaviour. In Aruba, where a similar ban is in place, awareness campaigns assisted in swift implementation and provision of alternative solutions. Amongst other stakeholders, SHTA counterparts in Aruba such as the tourism and hotel associations were closely involved in the process of change.
According to the Aruban initiators of the ban, Aruba used more than 30 million plastic bags per year at the point the law was introduced in 2016. Research is ongoing to include Styrofoam products in Aruba’s ban.
Translating household indicators to population and current stay-over visitor numbers, Aruban researcher Juliet Carvalhal roughly estimate at least 15 million plastic bags a year to be in use in St. Maarten.
According to Carvalhal, plastic bags are not just a problem as part of the waste challenge at large, but plastic bags are difficult to recycle. Even societies with high standards of recycling only recycle five per cent of this type of bag.
Wescot-Williams’ initiative law is modelled on the Aruba approach by placing the ban under the General Police Ordinance.
