Georgetown: Guyanese shoppers are being urged by the Ministry to play their part in reducing the environmental damage that plastic bags cause and to support the reusable bag initiative by refusing the plastic bags when paying for items.
As such plans are afoot to kick start a three-month pilot project for a reusable/ biodegradable bag initiative in supermarkets throughout Guyana under the Clean and Green Guyana Initiative (C&GG), being administered by the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The bag initiative is a part of a larger effort by the C&GG to create behavioural change to eliminate the wanton and improper disposal of waste in Guyana.
The objective of this initiative is to reduce the use of plastic bags by Guyanese consumers and businesses. Plastic bags are a major environmental threat in Guyana and around the world as they end up as unsightly litter on the landscape.
Plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to be broken down and even in this process, they separate into smaller toxic particulars which contaminate soil and water sources.
Under the initiative, the C&GG will provide selected supermarkets with reusable bags for distribution to customers and along with these supermarkets will use several ways to encourage customers to use the bags.
These include in store messages reminding customers to return with the bags the next time they shop and personal messages – cashiers and store attendants encouraging customers to use the reusable bags instead of plastic bags.
Additionally, the C&GG team will be interacting with the general public through social media on behalf of the supermarkets in order to encourage the use of the bags.
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