Supermarkets join fight against the plastic bag
(CNS): For several years now a number of people concerned about the growing environmental issues in the Cayman Islands have been campaigning for local businesses to reduce the number of plastic bags they use and give to customers. Three local supermarkets on Grand Cayman had now agreed to join the fight against the bags and will be replacing their current bags with bio-degradable bags, for which they will introduce a charge of 5 cents from June to encourage customers to reuse old plastic bags or the reusable shopping bags.
The new push to eventually eliminate plastic bags from the islands comes at a time when a new network organisation has been formed to promote more sustainable initiatives and improve Cayman’s currently inadequate green credentials.
In June 2009, Deloitte and the Sustainable Development Unit of the Department of Environment (DOE) struck up a partnership to promote and support the implementation of environmental projects and sustainability initiatives in the Cayman Islands. From this partnership has come the “Corporate Green Team Network”.
“Both Deloitte and the DOE recognized that many companies were trying to do their bit for the environment, but often felt they were working in isolation, so a network was started to provide a platform to come together, connect, coordinate efforts and ultimately work towards the same goal – the sustainability of the Cayman Islands,” a spokesperson for BECOME said.
The plastic bag reduction campaign kicked off at the beginning of April — Earth Month — and hopefully Fosters Kirks and Hurleys will be the first of many to join in the goal to eradicate them from the islands. In Cayman we use over a million plastic bags a month from the supermarkets alone, which will all end up in one place — the landfill, or even worse, in the ocean, where the bags can have a serious impact on marine life. There is a lot that can do to address this, not least changing old habits.
The Cayman BECOME campaign, therefore, aims to promote the use of reusable shopping bags instead of plastic, and to encourage members of the community to bring their own reusable bags when they shop. Foster’s, Hurley’s and Kirk supermarkets have committed to replacing non-degradable plastic bags with biodegradable versions, and introducing a charge of 5 cents for these plastic bags from 9 June with plans to eventually get rid of plastic carrier bags altogether.
All the supermarkets on Grand Cayman supply sturdy, comfortable, roomy reusable bags for a small fee, and these will continue to be sold in stores. On Cayman Brac, reusable bags can be purchased at Billys Supermarket and The Market Place.
For more information on the Corporate Green Team Network, Cayman BECOME and what to expect, go to www.caymanbecome.ky
Category: Science and Nature
Can I post this link again as its clear some of the commentators onhere have not clicked it and are instead arguing over questions, many of which are answered right here:
http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/FYN/FYNPubs/TheDangersofPlasticBags.pdf
Charging for plastic bags certainly seems like a good idea, but I wonder if it goes far enough. Some of those same supermarkets serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily in what looks very much to me to be non-biodegradable polystyrene containers (although I would be very pleased to be proved wrong on this point), and I think it would be worth considering including this problem in their environmental campaign.
Perhaps the money they reap from selling plastic bags could be used to help develop / subsidise a more environmentally friendly alternative to those containers, and it may also help the cynics to view this project in a slightly more positive light.
Polystyrene and plastic – they should be biodegradable card
What is the status on Mount Trashmore?
How soon will it be removed . It is a toxic health hazard. Questions have been raised about young people being subjected to cancer which is a killer disease. A toxic dump can cause cancer and no million dollar paid govt. consultant can tell us otherwise. so don’t even go there today!.
Like any other city or state that is lax in handling environmental issues such as overgrown,toxic waste or trash, the community remains in danger of outbreak of diseases, and loss of life, not to mention other pychological and negative effects on its society.
RESOLVING MOUNT TRASHMORE IS OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE.
It affects the welbeing of our citizens, residents and tourists alike.
Berthing of the new dock, and other projects are important but notas important as this one. Government needs to assure the people and set a deadline for this mountain of trash to be removed. This is a shame and is ‘THIRD WORLD TO THE CORE"
What kind of PR is this for tourism?
Oh Boy, now we in a mess. Those plastic bags come in so good as trash liners………now we will all have to buy the good ole Glad Trash Liners (Plastic) to use in our waste baskets…….. 6 of one 1/2 doz of the next if you ask me. Just another way to "tax" you and dictate what you should and should not do. Getting there slowly but surely.
Just have the Supermarkets not use anymore plastic bags. Make people bring their own bags or the reusable bags that Foster’s have. I know of a lot of places in Europe, just about everybody has their own bag, some have these special bags that look like a carry own suitcase. Just pop a coin into the shopping carts and once you’re done shopping, place all the items in that carry on bag and bring the cart back to the station, use the key from the other cart and you get your money back. So people don’t leave them all over the place. Was much easier than walking around a parking lot with bags tearing away, or being too lazy to bring the cart back and have them rolling around denting other people cars.
Five cents per bag isn’t going to make a dent in the plastic bag situation. I think there should be a flat rate of $1 applied to all receipts where plastic bags were required. Draconian? Yes. You will see alot of people (myself included) suddenly not forgetting to bring cloth bags…
Let’s make our booming prison population make thatch bags. The modest profits from these bags could be put back into paying for their 3 square meals a day, cable TV etc. Don’t want to make a bag then no TV and lose one meal a day.
Better yet plant, put the profits into planting more thatch palms.
My my, people are so easily duped to willfully give up their freedom and money, all under the guise of doing good and ‘saving’ the new God …Mother Earth. Yes it is a religion, a Godless religion! Go green! Global warming! Climate change! and whatever other slogan they will come up with tomorrow. I often feel as if I’m living amongst mind numb robots, aka sheeple!
This lunacy is the result of many years of brainwashing and indoctrinating generations by the 4 corners of deceit …Academia/Governments/Scientific communities and The liberal media ….Hollywood can also be thrown in the middle. The communist/socialist/marxists/progressives (all are the same) have found a very lucrative and easily exploited cause in the environmental movement to control people’s lives and have them so willfully give away their hard earned money and freedoms. They always tug at unsuspecting peoples’ heart strings to advance their leftist agenda with their touchy feely causes which they could really care less about.
This is big business, Al Gore and his leftist affiliates all over the world are becoming billionaires off the gullible masses. Please try to understand the magnitude of the consequences coming down the pike for all of us in advancing this agenda! The plastic bag .05 c charge is not to the supermarkets but to the companies manufacturing these so called biodegradable bags and green bags, like I said big business. They don’t give two hoots about the environment, in their own personal lives they have been exposed as the hypocrites that they are, just making big money and controlling every single aspect of our lives is the goal. That is what this whole movement is about.
The global warming hoax was exposed big time a few months ago with the many leaked emails between the scientists and professors. These perpetrators, are admitting and confessing their roles in this hoax. It is clear to see the cover up and lies that had been going on to concoct this scam on the world but you have to seek the truth, the media will not tell you as it exposes their role in the scam also. These emails were exposed just before the Copenhagen summit which caused much chaos and in turn the summit was a huge flop …this is the biggest scam of all mankind, totally exposed and the liberal media ignore it. So the uninformed clueless brainwashed people, all meaning well but oblivious to the fact that they are being exploited to advance the agenda because there’s too much money at stake!.. People are non the wiser as to the evil that they have jumped in bed with, instead they are brainwashed to think they are doing good and are the educated and the elite … going green is cool, young and hip and anyone who can see through the lies and are equipped with the truth is ridiculed and labeled "deniers" and are called "ignorant polluters".
I’m not saying that keeping our local environment clean is not a good thing of course it is, my issue is in assisting these perpetrators in exploiting us and taxing us to death… there will be no end to it and one day you will all wake up and wonder "How did we get here?" I ask myself often when considering the people at the helm of this movement "How did such idiots get to be so dominant?!"
Keep your eyes on the Cap & Trade (Tax) bill before the US senate that is the mother vehicle for the environmental movement it will affect all of us tremendously, energy cost will soar, therefore the cost of everything will escalate …that is huge as was the so called 2,700 page Health (Hell) Care Bill that passed a few weeks ago, it had little to do with health care. If you all think all of this is of no significance to us here or is of no consequence to us, then sit back and watch. Pay attention to US and world politics not just local, nothing that happens here is local, look beyond the shores of SMB, our leaders don’t even know they are being exploited and used to destroy their own country. Our lives as we know it is changing so rapidly and not for the better, as all the tyrants are in place all over the world to finally make it happen. After successfully chipping away at our basic values, liberties and freedoms over the past decades they are moving with leaps and bounds.
I will surly carry on my personal protest against the lunacy and refuse to purchase any plastic bags or green bags. I’m storing up my ‘free’ plastic bags as we speak. I try my best not to facilitate the scams, someone said to me just yesterday ‘but it’s too late, everyone is going green’ My reply to her was ‘yeah maybe, like just 18 mths ago many followers in the US were chanting ‘Hope and Change’ and no one questioned ‘whose hope and what change’ and just followed the crowd blindly. Now they are watching the systematic destruction on a daily basis of the America they knew and love at the hands of the enemy within. Everybody drank the koolaid in Jonestown too, would you have? Didn’t we all think those people were stupid?
Many eyes have been opened since 2008, maybe a little too late but at least millions of people are becoming so much more aware and informed about the vast leftist agenda and they are rising up and fighting back … and that is a good thing. Many of you would scoff at the idea of supporting communist but you are. Spit out the Koolaid and protest this move, today plastic bags, tomorrow there will be more, much more. The little dirty secret is that we use plastic bags today because many years ago these same environmental wackos forced them on us, we could no longer use paper bags because we had to save the trees! Cayman is indeed falling behind, most still remain unaware of the exposed lies that they support as evident by most comments here.
To the one who mentioned DDT, I ask you how many people died from DDT? Answer …not one! … but hundreds of millions all over the world in poor countries have died and continue to die today from malaria because of the that ban. There’s always (un)intended consequences to their causes which are almost always downright cruel. How’s that little fact for the heart strings?
Ready for the attacks and thumbs down now from the forever gullible.
sure the earth isnt warming but its getting dirty.. Lets try to clean it up one action at a time..
forget global warming, clean water works best for me…
Well said Truth Seeker…….but much afraid the Kool Aid is flowing all around Cayman now, we will fall for anything and any crap that is forced down our throats. Jim Jones is still around I’m afraid.
After reading this tedious rant, I’m beginning to come under the impression that you are the easily duped one. You have many arguments as to why global warming is such a "hoax" without quoting any empirical evidence, which I find truly concerning, because you write like you may have some sort of education under you belt. The reality is that you need to go retake your environmental studies 101 class, which you seem to have slept through. There ARE temperature cycles in which the Earth goes through and will continue to go through, unfortunately, never in recorded history has our planet’s temperature accelerated at such an alarming rate. The fact is that changes to our environment are supposed to take place, but they are supposed to happen over thousands of years. This allows living organisms to adapt and evolve to these changes over long periods of time. We, humans, have disrupted the Earth’s cycle drastically by destroying our environment in the short time we’ve been present on this tiny planet. This is very terrifying news, and I suggest that you do a little more research before discouraging people from doing the bare minimum to help our suffocating planet. You may not live to see the terrible things to come if drastic change isn’t made, but lets hope you don’t have children.
I had no intention of engaging in a back and forth with you or anyone else I put in the category of hopelessly gullible. I realize that decades of brainwashing is difficult to break but even more so unacceptable for you, the educated elite to accept that you have indeed been duped!. Did you really want my post to be any longer by presenting the evidence that Global Warming is a hoax? You complained as it was about the tedious task of reading my ‘rant’ as you put it. A simple search on ‘global warming hoax’ will give you all the information you need to chew on. Here’s an extensive compilation of articles of evidence dating back to 2007 to the present, I hope you can handle the truth and do some reading.
http://www.wnho.net/global_warming.htm
Being a Caymanian born in the 50’s I not only didn’t sleep through environmental studies 101 but was fortunate not to be subject to the brainwashing sessions as you obviously have been.
I’m not going to get into all your mumbo jumbo about climate change and how we humans are horrible and responsible for our natural ever changing earth’s climate. We humans are a part of nature too and it is arrogant to think that we could affect our climate in any way by anything we do, especially by handing over our freedom and money to snake oil salesmen …now let’s not even mention the volcano raging in Iceland right now. Who going to present that with it’s carbon credit tax bill? Also, if you believe that CO2 is a pollutant then maybe you may want to do your part to save the earth and hold your breath! The trees by the way love it, that’s what they need to survive, they will miss you. Silly!
We do have kids, we raised them with traditional values and to be leaders not followers. Clean cut and very highly educated with successful and some unique careers. Our youngest at 23 is well on his way to earning his Phd by age 26 in a highly specialized scientific field.. so much so that if I mention what field I will reveal my identity, not that I care. We are extremely proud of them and are forever grateful. I don’t know about you but our contributions to the human race are quite extraordinary.
Thank you "truth seeker #2" for your support, appreciate it!
wow, sounds like an ignorant rant to me. You say that we are all so gullible for believing in the ‘green’ movement… what makes you think you aren’t the gullible one for believing it doesn’ exist?
either way, it doesn’t matter. no one will change your mind. but please don’t pollute other well educated well meaning people with your lies.
lastly, good for you for stock piling in your plastic bags. whether you realize this or not, you are ‘reusing’ a form of recycling and going green. so you too have joined the movement whether you like it or not!
Am I denying the "green movement" doesn’t exist? LOL that’s funny, it’s alive and well thanks to people like you. What, did I present you with too much evidence of the "climategate" scandal? Is that why you call me ignorant and accuse me of polluting others’ minds. Why does it bother you for people to learn the truth? For others to think for themselves and question this massive deception …you talk about lies!
I have no problem with sensible recycling and reusing, I do it all the time. I use the plastic bags for bin liners, that’s reusing. I love cleanliness…. keeping our local environment clean and sensible preservation of our natural resources without infringing on peoples’ rights … but don’t try to convince methat I have to let swindlers take my money if I can avoid it.
Therefore, I will not be purchasing any biodegradable or "green" bags manufactured by these new "green" corporations …like I said follow the money! "Going Green" must be an inside joke ….they’re "going green" alright …raking in the "green" and laughing all the way to the bank!
I am so excited about this!!!! My best friend gave me a reusable bag for xmas that can be rolled up small enough to fit in my bag but it’s big enough to carry about 3 plastic bags of groceries (I think those are sold at Book Nook). Do you know how much people go into the supermarkets and get a plastic bag for just their milk???
Another plus for those reuseable cloth bags…my family uses them for just about anything we need to carry. If we go on BBQs, we fill those bags up with all the food stuff, etc, and away we go. When I clean out my car, I use one of those cloth bags to put all the junk in to take back in the house.
This should be just the start. What about getting the newspaper companies to start a recycling program for their old newspapers? LIME can start one for their old phone books! Bars/clubs/restaraunts could come together to organise a recycling program for glass bottles and cans! All with governments help and incentive but even so, one shouldn’t wait on government to make the first move.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could become the greenest island in the Caribbean? Ok, enough with the daydream rants back to reality!
This could be a fee that is paid to government and could be taxed to all stores carrying plastic bags upon importation. They would then collect the fee from the customers when the bags are purchased at their place of business. This would dicourage both vendors and customers from using plastic bags.
I say if they are going to charge customers to use plastic then the supermarkets must give this 5 cents or whatever they collect for the plastic bag to some non profit organisation and it should not go into their pockets. It is their responsibility to provide bags for free to carry your goods however I think it would be a great idea if this small fee was going to some non profit orginaisation say to assist with island clean up etc.
Where does it say it is their responsibility to provide you bags to do your shopping. I know for a fact that in the UK you have to pay for plastic shopping bags and have had to do so in some shops for the past 10 years at least.
Get out your wallet, pay $1 for a resuable bag and stop complaining. Reusable bags are much easier to carry and you can pack more in them without the fear of them splitting.
I am all for reusable bags. If anyone is like me every event on the island usually give reusable bags with their promo items. I have a C&W, chamber of commerce, BOB and lots more bags at home that can be used for grocery items. So people get environmentally friendly and dig out those bags (that were FREE by the way) and use them instead of the soon to be expensive plastic bags.
Good news to a certain degree as we need residents to use reusable bags only. Also let’s start charging 5c per can and bottle as to encourage a national recycling program it is time Cayman got our act together like the rest of the world. Remember we have to look after our natural environment as we’re only safe guarding it for future generations so let’s all do our part.
Government could also start looking in to creating a $2 per person per night tax for hotel guest and cruise passengers the Environment Fund to be used for creating parks and cleaning up polluted areas. Push to get a 35mpg by 2012 and start charging a 20% duty only for Hybrid and environmentally friendly vehicles and modes of transportation. Start introducing proper walking and bike lanes to pomote healthier lifestyles and damage to our environment.
Another great benefit would be to implement a national tree planting drive to replace native trees and plants that were lost due to Ivan and Paloma and over development. I ask that Goverment considers to place the mangove, buttonwood, mahogany, birch tree and other antive speices on the protected list and pass the Conversation Bill this year.
5c per bottle or can is too little for rich tourists.charge 1Dollar
I am delighted that supermarkets are going to start charging for plastic bags. I hope everyone starts to charge for plastic bags. On an island where there is so little opportunity to recycle it is about time we all started doing more to look after the environment and create less rubbish.
I’m a Caymanian and I lived in the UK for a few years. Supermarkets there offer plastic bags but also offer sturdy strong reusable bags with cute designs on them. You pay for them once ans use them over and over. Its just that simple. If the supermarkets here offer good reusable bags consumers will pay for them instead of the plastic ones. There is no excuse to continue plaguing our environment with plastic bags.
They make this sound like some green drive, but we all know it is a ploy to bump up the already hideous profits made by the big supermarkets.
How about a 5 cent discount for every recyled bag used or for the use of the reusable shopping bags they sell?
That would be a real effort and would show their commitment. But then that’s not what this is about for them in their search for ways to rip us off more.
I find it funny that such a small island can have so many devils advocates and cynics.
Well, if you believe this is just another ploy to bump their already hideous profits, buy a recyclable bag and stick it to them. And better yet, help the environment by not adding to the millions of bags being used yearly.
Oh wait, that is what they want you to do…. Big Business Wins Again!
Why does everyone always need to get something in return to do something right????
I’ve been used to using recycled bags for years, it’s not a new invention in Cayman, other countries have been encouraging it for years.
What I don’t agree with is big businesses and governments using the environment as an excuse to increases taxes and charge more for services.
It’s a shame that people like yourself that enjoy preaching to others to make themselves feel less inadequate don’t put more effort into helping these causes instead of pedantically picking holes in everyone.
What is your suggestion? If they don’t charge for the plastic bags, people will continue to use them like they are going out of style. People tend only to look up and take notices once it costs them something. If it is free, they abuse it because………..well it’s free!
I am soooo glad this issue is finally getting attention. It infuriates me when I see these ignorant people who have to get one plastic bag to carry one pack of gum!
Next on the list – introduce legislation that does not allow restaurants to use throw away plastic dishes and cutlery. Make them get dishwashers and use proper dishes or reusable plastic ware!
It’d help if the supermarkets advised the young people packing at the tills to use less bags. Before I moved to re-usable "green"bags a couple of years ago it used to really bug me how they’d throw a couple of items into a bag and then start a next – twenty plastic bags when there’s only a need for 6 or 7. I tried asking them to use less bags myself but to no avail.
Biodegradable plastic is a bad idea. Why would you want small plastic pieces floating around in the ocean?The Oil companies are hoping to greenwash the consumers into thinking that plastic (made from oil) is going to be ok to biodegrade. Its a scam. No company that sells an additive that is added to plastic can verify that it won’t end up in the ocean causing more harm than good. They also can’t verify that in a landfill, dump and bury type, that it will have the correct environment to disappear.
Infact, 95 percent of all US landfills are dump and bury type. You can still read news papers that have been down there for over 40 years. There just isn’t enough moisture and oxygen. Don’t buy into this scam, the oil companies have spent a lot of money to keep plastics alive.
The additive companies may be able to prove that it biodegrades in a well managed environment, and then creates methane gas, that we can use for energy….bla bla bla. Its a scam…..don’t buy into it.
We just need to change our ways. If you dig deep enough you’ll find the money trail from oil companies to biodegradable plastic additives. And on the flip side the agriculture industry supporting corn based plastics industry.
I’d prefer to have small pieces of corn floating in the ocean than small pieces of plastic until something better comes along or we learn to just change our habits.
Biodegradable plastics is wrong. Be careful as the word biodegradable implies something positive and "green" and the oil companies are just attempting to keep their industry alive.
The product is not bio-degradable it is Oxy-degradable…these particular bags are being produced using D2W you can Google it anddecide if it’s safe or not.
What about DEH what are they using for can liners…I can safely say that the oxy-digradable products are much better than regular plastic!
Finaly some people are using bags etc…with the recycle logo (little arrows in a circle) this only means that it was made from recycled plastic…
some action is better than no action!
Great idea!
This is ridiculous and in my mind a wrong incentive to get people to buy into this program. In fact it sounds like a rip off? I have said for a long time if the Supermarkets want to encourage people to use recycle shopping bags; they should give a small discount (maybe a $1. off every $100) to anyone who brings their own recycle shopping bags, to my mind that would encourage people to participate. With this proposal I would not be surprise if they lose customers, but we will see.
I cannot see how you think this is ridiculous. I think it is a great idea. Charging for plastic bags has been going on in other parts of the world for a long time now. Cayman has been way far behind.
I hope they put the money raised from the plastic bags towards helping the environment.
Eventually they can stop providing plastic bags altogether and everyone will be forced the use the re-usable ones.
Good idea and I agree with you, I cannot see through charging a for .5 cents for a plastic, the only environment that will benefit are the profits of the merchants. Let’s see if they will launch this exercise with a free recycle bag blitz.. I bet they will not?
CNS: can you please find out if any of this 5 cents per plastic bag will be going to benefit the dump situation or any other environmental program or is it going into the coffers of the merchants to pay for the cost of the bag, which they should be in the first place providing for their customers?
After all the plastic bag with end up in the dump or affecting the environment somewhere while their profits continue to grow.
such ignorance 16:20. Your so far behind! Please dont paint a picture as if the rest of Cayman is behind you. By the sounds of things if you were running things, we would still be spraying mosquitos with DDT, living in homes with lead paint and asbestose, smoking cancer sticks on planes and running cars on leaded gasoline.
go and get a reusable canvas bag and be a model citizen!
Oh well, thats means more Cost u less and Priced right shoppers…
They don’t even have bags to begin with, never have!!
This is no News in some other parts of the World, you bring your own proper bags when you go shopping! However the 5 cent charge for the "bio Bag" is yet another way to Nickel & Dime the Customers by our lovely Suppliers! It is just very unfortunate that we are at their mercy. I will by me some shopping bags in the USA on my next trip, so they can take their "bio bag" and stick it where the sun dont shine!
Pleasant shopping you all!!!
No, it is not! It is common practice in a lot of other countries. Charging the customer for plastic bag is further encouragement for them to re-use old bags or get cloth bags, baskets etc. You can buy reusable bags for a little of $1. If you buy 5 of those, I would say that is a good long term investment.
Unless people feel it in their wallets, they will take the easy way out and continue with the plastic bags! Sad, but true.
Actually, it’s very common for retailers in Europe to charge a nominal fee for plastic bags to encourage people to bring their own bags or at the very least use less plastic bags. Get your head out of the sand, we’re way behind in the green movement and it’s thoughts like yours that will keep us there. Buy some re-usable bags for a few dollars at any of the supermarkets and don’t be an a******.
Good ! Finally Cayman has joined the rest of theworld and started addressing some of the environmental concerns and issues !
My first eye opener was in Switzerland a few years back. There was no such thing as a plastic bag everyone carried their own bags (paper, reusable shopping bags, backpack etc). Also, in Canada every store charges you 10 cents for a plastic bag, shopping malls included .
It’s a bit of a lifestyle change but I think we will all survive.
If I may add this enlightening link in the hope of persuading the doubters…
http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/FYN/FYNPubs/TheDangersofPlasticBags.pdf
I only use the re-usable Kirk bags (the Fosters ones are too small to be of any real use on a weekly shop). I find that I can getthe equivalent of more than two plastic bags in one reusable bag, not to mention triple the weight, and then I pop those bags over my shoulders and I am good to go – less baggage; no plastic bags digging into my hands and splitting half way to the car/bus stop – a heck of a lot easier to walk with. The few dollars I spent on those bags are not only saving the environment, but I also find, saving me a lot of hassle and heartache on my weekly shops. If supermarkets want to give out free bags they should be brown paper bags. Plastic bags should be banned. If you didn’t already click on the link I left above please do it now, and you’ll see why many of us want them banned altogether.
you get a funny look if you (like we do for many years) reject bags.
(yes i can have a pack of cereal and a bottle milk in my hands without using 2 bags… and a soda + some gum at the gas station needs no bag either)
go green is the only way!
maybe people learn to bring and use a plastig bag again.
if you provide propper bags in a longer lasting quality you can charge me
30 cent like in most parts of the EU.
but the 5 cent wont fix the problem… education – get people to understand what it means if the can flys out of the window, the oilchange is done on the yard or the old batt. from your tv remote goes in the normal trash…
Hurray!!! It is about time. I hate those plastic sacks floating everywhere. Now we need to charge a deposit on all of the cans and bottles. In Europe you must separate your garbage in to 3 different types. That is why it so clean there. Many states in the USA also have a deposit on the can and bottles. I see kids feeding them in to the machines for a refund. Hence helps with some pocket money and no more cans and bottle in the dump. This is a great idea and I for one am all for it. If you have a problem with the charge the maybe back to the old paper bags might work.
Thats great for the tourist market – I am sure they dont walk around with bags to put their purchases in especially on their way to their condo from the airport – I guess the Brackas will have to bring their bags down with them too.
I say make it $.50 a bag (minimum – with any proceeds put to cleaning up ‘Mount Trashmore’).
Let’s be an environmental leader in at least one area (even if we are already YEARS behind!)
We NEED to break pepole ‘habits’ in their use of plastic bags.
This stuff NEVER goes away – just gets smaller and smaller until it enters the food chain.
This is a good first step…
Agreed! 5c is not enough to stop people using plastic. 50c would make them think twice.
The re-usable grocery bag is a good initiative and we should all support it, because much of our waste arrives from the groceries we buy. There is also another option used in Europe. At the exit of grocery stores customers can remove excess packaging and leave it in the re-cycle bins at the front of the store. This puts the onus back on stores and thence to manufacturers to reduce the amount of packaging which is also a problem. Re-cycling to be effective needs to be an entire operation from manufacturer to consumer. Even if consumers are becoming more aware where on Cayman would you take your re-cycling? Answer to the top of our very own mountain. Sad but true.
With a medical center about to be built here we have to get better than this.
Fantastic! This should have happened a long time ago. Re-use your old plastic ones or better yet, use the cloth ones. If you use whole sale shopping then take your reusable bags or a cardboard box with you to load your groceries so they do not roll around in your trunk. Stop complaining and start being part of the solution!
Oh, please; to charge a 5c is a rip off and just another sure fire way for super markets to save and bump up their bottom line. Buying in bulk they probably only pay that per bag anyway. I think if you offer a service of selling groceries retail the least one would expect is to get a free bag in which to place them. After all we are already paying an arm and a leg for them.
If the bags are bio-degradable anyway, we are already reducing or footprint ~ where’s the need to charge. They don’t charge for the plastic ones.
I know one thing, I will be shopping at the supermarket that does not chose to charge . Having to put my items in my car trunk when I shop at the whole sale places is irritating enough for me. Am only saying what others are thinking.
A typical uneducated response to a serious issue. A lazy attitude from a lazy member of Cayman society.
The Province of Ontario enacted this law some time ago and it has been very successful. Local designers and shops compete with each other over who can provide the most stylish grocery/shopping bags, and none cost over 99 cents.
Or you could just take in your own plastic bags, instead of always throwing them away.
But I suppose that is just to difficult for you
"Throwing them away" Who throws them away? I re-use them in every small waste bin I have and when full put them in the garbage containers. Now I am going to have to buy from the supermarkets a plastic bag to put my waste in, looks like the supermarkets win with this one.
Hurleys, Fosters, AND Kirks are all on-board for this, and Cost U Less and Priced Right don’t even offer shopping bags. So, my friend, it looks like if you want groceries, be prepared to cough up the 5 Cents, or easier and better still, switch over to reusable bags. It’s really not that big of a deal, is it?
Actually Cost U Less offers reusable bags – they are located at the checkout and they are the large red ones. They hold a lot of groceries and are very easy to carry. They are good quality and we always take them with us as it is much better than any plastic bag or cardboard container.
Sounds like you are just completely lazy and ignorant. How about thinking about the bigger picture than just your own selfish wants.
Mmmm tasty turtle. I need my dinner NOW!
The flipping bags that we are now given to put our groceries in are so flimsy that if you put more than three items into them by the time that you get to your car it is torn. Thats the last thing now, oh I suppose since we are copying Cubas way of Tourism we are also copying not using plastic shopping bags. Thats really the last thing now. This is only going to encourage people to shop for less items.This is the worst thing that has ever happened since Cable and wireless got rid of their local operators and has replaced them in Jamaica.Not to mention the voice mails that has slowed down the entire system in Cayman.
Was it a hard day drinking in the sun before you posted this?
I feel slightly less intelligent for even bothering to reply to this posting….shame on me. But anyway, are you serious? Encourage people to shop for fewer items? I suggest you pick up the books "Economics for Dummies" and "Environmental Saftey for Dummies" and take a read before embarassing yourself with a post like this.