One Dominican businessman is responding positively to Prime Minister Skerrit’s call for the public’s collaboration and cooperation as the country prepares for the implementation of a ban on Styrofoam and plastics this month.
President of Carifeed Inc, Jeff Bellot, says he believes that this is a very good move and would like to work with the government, in particular the ministries of agriculture and tourism, to implement new measures for farmers and make them realize the importance of using waste wisely and reducing waste on farms.
Bellot says his organisation has already taken steps to facilitate this initiative in the agricultural sector.
“We, at CariFeed, support anything that can be good for the environment. We are already ahead of the game by providing the Caribbean with a product package in paper bags which are 100 % biodegradable where we can work with farmers to reuse those bags in farms to help with manure or other agricultural uses that can reduce significant amount of plastics and other debris on the farm.”
Bellot also expressed great concern about the amount of littering taking place in Dominica which he says can affect Dominica’s tourism industry.
“I believe that banning plastic and Styrofoam may not be the only thing we need to do. I also believe that the government needs to reinforce laws unto the country to ensure that we stop littering, especially in the cities,” he stated. “As someone who grew up in the Soufriere and Scotts Head area, I always remembered it was nightmare whenever there were rough seas by both the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans which sent debris around the shore line which normally created a problem for our tourist industry in the area.”
The Scotts Head native mentioned other ideas which he thinks will help improve Dominica’s livestock industry and help the country in becoming a more environmentally friendly nation.
“We are hoping we can have another training programme in Dominica in 2019 to move forward with the livestock industry. CariFeed believes Dominica has the full potential to supply its own island with pork and poultry, to begin with, and we are already self-sufficient in eggs,” he noted. “We also want to work with the skills training programme with an idea we have to help young people to make reusable bags to provide to groceries stores in Dominica.”
Bellot says if everyone in Dominica works together as a people, we can be successful in reaching our goal in becoming a cleaner, better, stronger and healthier Dominica.
I like the idea of banning plastics cause I have seen the sloppy way Dominicas dispose of pplastic containers and bags, however what about garbage disposal. Are going back to the days wen we use to go to the truck or metal bin to ‘fro’ rubbish?
I never got to understand how the ban on Styrofoam and plastics is going to work. For example with the food service industry, what is the proposal? What is going to replace it?
There are alternatives to plastic that can be used in the food industry. These alternatives are non biodegradable. Some can be made from cane. These days we are speaking about de criminalization of Marijuana and Hemp. These plants can also be used to make alternatives to plastic. Plastics are having deleterious impacts on the environment and they are non-biodegradable. The World is moving in this direction to ban plastics. Look Jamaica has just gotten on board. This is a great initiative by the government which they must receive high commendation for.