Dominica Plans To Ban Use of Plastic and Styrofoam

Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit plans to ban the use of Styrofoam and plastic items in the New Year.

Effective January 1st 2019,  Styrofoam and certain plastic items will be banned in Dominica, as PM Skerrit enables his government’s vision of making Dominica the first climate resilient country in the world.

“We are starting the banning of Styrofoam and plastic food utensils and in the next few months we will also articulate a second phase of the banning of certain non-biodegradable items in our country,” he said.

Skerrit continued, “But before we do that, we are seeking to provide to ensure that the biodegradable items are accessible to every citizen and therefore the taxes, the import duties on those items will be reduced drastically or taken down  to zero.”

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Meantime, he urged citizens to respect the litter laws in Dominica.

“I want to say to citizens, the same practice we adopt when we go to the metropolitan countries where our garbage remain in our vehicles and in the privacy of our homes, that’s what we want in Dominica,” he stated. “We will be very stringent on those who fail to respect the litter laws in our country, because we all complain about the country’s this and the country’s that, but the question is who are  the ones who dump the litter, the garbage on the side of the roads or in the streets?”

According to Skerrit, “We are the ones who do it, so if we do not want it, the simple thing to do is to stop it and if we cannot stop it, then the law will cause us to stop it.”

He made it clear that the laws will even be strengthened to ensure that, “we respect nature and that we can preserve and conserve our environment.” SOURCE: DominicaOnlineNews