EDITORIAL: The price of plastic
Those behind the current initiative to create a disincentive for using plastic bags to carry groceries by charging a nominal fee for their provision are doubtless inspired by the noblest of intentions. After all, according to popular legend, those plastic bags pose a substantial ecological threat, from their production to attempts at their disposal, to their destruction and, on these bases, all who love the environment should welcome their disappearance from the Barbadian landscape.
Despite this, we are not too confident as to the likely success of the current initiative, given that it collides frontally with two existing Barbadian cultural traits that are likely to prove immovable; that of having to change at all, especially from an age-old practice of being provided the bags without charge, and that of a natural antipathy to any increase, no matter how infinitesimal, in their cost of living.
Already there is some resistance in the minimal public discourse. People are wondering whether paying a price for the bags would not entail some element of “double jeopardy” since, as they aver, their price is already included in the cost of the items available. We also hear threats of civil protest by some leaving the items purchased at the cash register if a price is at all demanded for the bags. There have also been queries as to its legitimacy, since payment of the fee for the bags has not been legislated, as it has been elsewhere in those jurisdictions that follow this practice, but appears to be simply the result of collaboration between a non-governmental organisation and a number of supermarkets.
Moreover, the science surrounding the negative ecological effects of the plastic bag is not settled. While claims have been made that these items are lethal to marine life when they end up in the ocean, one Professor Corrado Cerrone of Italy has hotly contested this assertion. In an article in the Environmental Impact Report for June 1989 – http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1989/eirv16n26-19890623/eirv16n26-... – he posits that a study commissioned from the Marine Biology Institute at the University of Pisa, Italy found that “there is nowhere any evidence that plastic residues or plastic materials in general, or bags in particular, are a cause – even a measurable cause – of danger or harm to marine ecosystems”.
In the same article, he debunks some of the other popular arguments against the prevalence of plastic bags – for example, their inability to be recycled that he discounts as false given the demonstrable evidence to the contrary. He also treats the frequently made link between the non-biodegrability of these bags and pollution, showing that these are two different concepts. Indeed, according to his study, some bio-degradation may cause pollution as in the growth of algae and increased eutrophy in the Adriatic Sea that is caused by the inflow biodegradable matter from the River Po.
What we find most remarkable about the current initiative is the glaring absence of official comment from the authorities. No member of Cabinet has been heard to utter a word either of endorsement or criticism on this matter.
Further, some Barbadians are notoriously quick to resist any suggestion of the transplantation of human rights theory or progressive reform from abroad. Apart from the nascent mumblings of discontent, there has been no advice, as in other contexts, that the matter requires further and deeper study before any definitive position may be arrived at.
Given the current financial status of most Barbadians, we would need to be more cogently persuaded that the proposed fee, as trifling as it may be, is appropriate at this stage.