For Plastic Free July, the Ministry of Tourism in St. Kitts and Nevis is challenging the public to reuse, refuse, reduce, recycle and repurpose:

Plastic is one of the major polluters to the environment and to combat this growing problem, the Ministry of Tourism has launched the “Plastic Free July” initiative to promote steps for solution to pollution.

While appearing on the government’s weekly programme, “Working for You” on July 11, Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Diannille Taylor-Williams, encouraged the public to reduce their plastic usage by implementing five key steps. These steps are reuse, refuse, reduce, recycle and repurpose.

She also highlighted that using reusable shopping bags and simply denying a straw for your drink are small ways that individuals can make a big impact in plastic reduction.

“Plastics would have been introduced into the Federation in a big way in the 1950s and 1960s so that number of plastic has been introduced into our environment. What we can do is help to remove the plastics that are already there because as you explained it takes 500 years to disintegrate and so we know that the plastic from the 1950s is still out there,” she said.

She also mentioned that the ministry and other environmental groups have been conducting beach clean ups and implementing programmes to reduce plastic use and to eliminate and repurpose some of the plastics that are presently accumulating on the island.

Read more in the full report from the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service.

[Image: Mitchell Haindfield]