No timeline in place for styrofoam ban

There is currently no timeline in place for the announcement of the planned styrofoam ban by the government.
Minister of Health Molwyn Joseph told OBSERVER media that a date cannot be set to prohibit styrofoam products such as cups and plates, because there is no alternative in place as yet.
“I cannot determine a timeline. The timeline will be influenced by the progress in our consultations with our partners.”
Earlier this week, the Department of Environment engaged wholesalers, distributors and other stakeholders in talks to determine the best way to phase out and eventually ban the item.
Joseph said a technical committee comprised of three representatives of the Environment department, one from Gores Wholesale and one from Bargain Centre has been formed to seek an alternative and to look at how cost effective various alternatives will be, so that no one is inconvenienced.
Meanwhile, vendors, business owners and consumers on Thursday got reactions from small scale food businesses as well as customers on the pending initiative.
While some welcomed the change for the sake of the environment, others said government should ensure that an alternative is in place well before the ban.
“When they implement what they implement, they can ban styrofoam. That’s all I have to say about that,” one street vendor said.
A consumer asked what would happen to small -scale operations such as family gatherings.
 “Using that at work, they will, maybe, top up their price and make a money from it like add a dollar or some cents to benefit from it, but home wise, what do we do?”
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)