Refuse & Re-use plastic bags!
The Future Centre Trust in conjunction with the major supermarkets in Barbados will hold the inaugural “No Plastic Bag Day” on Saturday May 8th, 2010.
Currently an excess of 100 million plastic bags are used in Barbados yearly and each one of us is guilty of using them unnecessarily, using too many (double bagging) and of throwing out perfectly good bags instead of re-using them. Plastic bags are washable, reusable and recyclable when they become damaged. If each one of us reached for a reusable shopping bag when we went out the door instead of expecting and accepting plastic bags from merchants, our country and streets would be better off.
You can see that a good proportion of the litter on our beaches and at the roadside is from thrown away plastic bags. They are everywhere in the fields and in the trees where they blow in the wind like little environmental disaster area flags. They block the drains and cause flooding. They gather at the side of steps and in holes and form filthy little swamps for mosquito breeding.
First 150 Volunteers will have fun doing something good for Barbados – AND they get a T-shirt!
This is a first for Major Supermarket Retailers, Super Centre, Trimart and Carlton A1/Emerald City as they have joined forces to provide a non-branded Reusable Shopping Bag for sale to the Barbadian Consumer.
No Plastic Bag Day to be held for the first time on Saturday May 8, provides our supporters with an opportunity to volunteer an hour or three of their time to help create awareness to the public.
The locations available are:
Super Centre
• Oistins
• Big B
• JB’s
• Warrens
• Sunset Crest
Carlton A1 Supermarket Black Rock, St Michael
Emerald City Six Roads St Philip
TriMart
• St Martins, St Philip
• Rendezvous
• Haggatt Hall
• Bridge Road
• Mile and a Quarter, St Peter
Shifts we are using are 10am – 1pm and 4pm – 7pm. You can give an hour and a half or three hours. Volunteers will be asked to contribute $10 for the No Plastic Bags for Me T shirt – the ‘uniform’ of the day (Thanks to Gildan Activewear for supplying the shirts – just need to print them!) – and will be asked to ‘roam’ the Supermarkets to encourage shoppers to buy Reusable Shopping Bags and explain the benefits of and also how to use them.
The idea is if you walk out of the supermarket every 2 weeks with maybe 6 bags (maybe doubled up – which in fact makes 12) then you replace maybe 4 of those bags with reusable bags so you still have 2 (or 4) to use for your garbage bags!
We recognise that bags are a part of our society, but do we really need to accept so many of them? Reduce the use of the plastic bag is the first step! Come out and help out!!
Environment Minister Denis Lowe invited.
I would like to invite the Minister of the Environment and other parliamentarians to join me at Super Centre Warrens at 11pm when we go live on radio. Thanks in advance for your continued support!
Kammie M Holder
Future Centre Trust
Here is the Future Centre Trust website where you’ll find further details on No Plastic Bag Day.
Download this pdf file NPBD Group Sign Up Sheet – print what you need or email us if you are able to help out. Please email if you are an individual or a small group, this form can be used for larger groupings. By emailing directly you are made aware of the conditions on this form.
emails: futurecentretrust@gmail.com info@futurecentretrust.org
BFP thanks the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3090 Los Angeles for the trash photo!
Barbados Free Press 
This is EXCELLENT!!! Proud to see my people and my nation stepping up to the environmental plate. Even though Barbados has a long way to go, the No Plastic Bag Day is a WONDERFUL beginning!
Thanks to the most widely read Barbadian blog Barbados Free Press and the largest cellular services provider LIME everyone knows about No Plastic Bag Day! Despite no support from governments the Future Centre Trust continues to lead the way in environmental education. Remember,say no to plastic bags today.Our next event will be Clean Up Barbados Day which forms part of World Clean Up Day initiative. We are a non profit organisation and survive on donations from the public. To make a monetary donation call 246-425-2020.
Kammie, nice of you to extend an invitation but Minister of Environment Dr. Dennis Lowe is in New York and “….heads a delegation to the Review Session of the 4th Implementation Cycle on the Commission of Sustainable Development CSD-18, which started Monday May 03 and runs until Friday May 14.”
It’s Saturday 2pm, and I just came back from Emerald City in St.Philip. Here is what I saw:
1. I estimate about 30 to 40% of people bought one recyclable bag and checked out with this one recyclable bag and 4 to 6 plastic bags.
2. I did not see anybody checking out with just recyclable bags.
3. And the first prize goes to … the lady who checked out with her groceries packed in several plastic bags, and then in the recyclable bag !
Was the checkout staff made aware of this action and the reasoning behind it, of was it just a case of “here are the bags, they’re $$$ each”. I always use recyclable bags, and the confusion on the faces of the checkout staff is very apparent.
Also, the illustration of what plastic bags do to the environment is never far away at Emerald City. When you leave the car park towards the Four Roads area, just look on the opposite side of the road: plastic bag pollution in all its ugliness.
This is a commendable action, but Barbados has a long way to go to catch up with countries where plastic bags are no longer used in supermarkets, or where they are altogether banned.
Also, shouldn’t the Ministry of the environment play a more active role in this?
The Minister of Environment is busy in New York with all his luggage assistants and hanger ons acting for the citizens of Barbados telling anyone who will listen at the UN how much he is doing for the Barbadian environment.
The only plastic the Minister will be using is his plastic credit card which will be recycled and reused many times before he returns to Barbados.
I was at Supercentre Warrens mid morning & I’m sure there were people with plastic bags but I didn’t see them. I did see people buying recycled ones at the checkout & people who’d bought their own with them as I did.
Well done to the Future Centre, maybe a day every other month like this would make people more aware.
Now if we can just persuade people to pick up & dispose of their own litter……..
No Plastic Bag, I was based at Emerald City from 9am until 5pm. Only left there to visit Trimart St Martins. No Plastic Bag Day was a success at Emerald City. Kudos goes to Mr Dean, the cashiers and packers for promoting the use of boxes and recyclable bags. Many persons brought their own bags which showed our message was well received.
Figures showed 80% of shoppers between 9am and 2pm participated in No Plastic Bag Day.There were only two difficult persons we encountered, a drunk who said he ain’t care about No Plastic Bag Day which was understandable. We also had an individual who due to an misunderstanding left his groceries. because he did not take time to understand the options available.
By 12pm today Trimart Haggat Hall had sold in excess of 300 bags. Tell me if that was not a success story? As a consolation to you I had to make a call to Mr Bynoe around 4:45pm informing him the afternoon shift and supervisors seemed not interested in contributing to No Plastic Bag Day`s earlier success.
We appreciate all comments positive or otherwise.Only a fool thinks he has a monopoly on solving his problems. Please ask Dr Lowe to get in contact with the Future Centre Trust with the view to meeting with us. Do inform him needs to keep his meeting with us, its not nice to send a message saying you had an urgent important meeting so ours is cancelled. The Future Centre Trust is made up of volunteers and uses donations to fund its projects.
Even Barbados unofficial Park Ranger Julian Glyne Hunte endorsed No Plastic Bag Day 2010.
I went to Eddie’s Supermarket in Speightstown this afternoon with my three reusable bags. I packed them myself and used no plastic bags.
Unfortunately, I was the only person using said bags. Everyone else was double bagging as usual and in fact, the supervisor was packing at the counter I used. I mentioned to the security guard, the cashier and the supervisor about no plastic bag day and all I got was funny looks.
I sincerely hope it went better in other supermarkets. It needs to be a regular thing and eventually people will start to get the message. I hope it catches on.
Kammie, I am a bagaholic I have “green”: bags from all over the world, here’ s my take:
1. The bag needs to be a decent size;
2. The bag needs to be cool or atleast look cool;
3. The bag needs to be durable.
Also at $4.99 prohibitive for the average Bajan, when an entire shopping trip wood likely require 8-10 of those mini bags!!!
You missed the mark…
Well done to Kammie and all the people at the Future Centre Trust. This was the start of something beautiful and it will grow every year and you’ll see that five years from now more people will use fewer plastic bags. That will be the longterm result of this first “no plastic bag day”.
No environmental project can be “wham-bam-accomplished”. This is a long term project to change the minds and culture of people who don’t care. Kammie and the other good people know that and they keep plugging away.
Do I understand correctly that no government representative was present on Saturday or during the planning?
That can’t be right! Tell me it’s not true, Kammie!
What was the extent of government interest or participation in the planning and execution of the event? Please let us know the whole story Kammie.
Kammie
It is time to hold a big rally to have representatives start runing for each parish who care about the environment.
Don’t wait—run!
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Only the following Supermarkets participated in No Plastic Bag Day. Emerald City, Carlton & A1, Super Centre, Trimart, Coffee and H& B Hardware. The others showed total indifference. The Barbadian society is one that suffers from the Reactionary and Complacency Syndrome.
How cooler can the bags get,the bags are a start and do hold a lot of groceries. We tried sourcing bags locally but we were quoted a cost of $20 does we had no choice to import bags at $5. If one of you could have assisted in telling the Ministry of Finance it would have made sense to approve the duty waiver as $10 million is used to clear drains. The bags could have been sold a lot cheaper.
Shoppers, willing took boxes and brought their own bags to Emerald City.
Unfortunately, no representative of government saw it necessary, and its not a DLP or BLP issue. Its just a case of the Barbadian citizenry not demanding a higher level of representation from those elected.
I am truly fed up with what is happening in my country. My column Swimming Upstream was use as the voice of the voiceless where I wrote for the average man to understand. Did you see it on Friday?
Here is the link to the last column
http://www.nationnews.com/comments/guestcolumnists/swimming-upstream-APR-30-copy-for-web
Not interested in political life in Barbados or elsewhere at this date, me Kammie the great great grandson of slaves from Joes River and Holders Plantation!
MY HOPE IS THAT THE ELECTIONS IN BRITAIN AND TRINIDAD BE A WAKE UP CALL FOR BAJANS. OUR NEXT ELECTION WILL BE A WATERSHED IN OUR POLITICAL HISTORY. STAY TUNED.
I must say that there is a constant urging by individuals who are not new to money to have a New Party similar to the US Tea Party. These individuals are motivated by the love of country and a desire to save the country from its current slide. You will be shocked at the level of competence of these people who are mostly entrepreneurs both local and overseas. Hopefully, we may so motivated to formalized something if a serious desire is shown. Talk is cheap.
Attached is the Barbados Auditor Genarals Report.
To Kammie and The Future Centre Trust. Keep up the good work. This was an excellent effort. At least you all continue to get off your butts and actually do something while the politicians pintificate and a lot of us just sit around making comments on BFP.
Barbados Auditor General Report on NHC
Click to access Special%20Audit%20on%20NHC%202009.pdf
kammie, i dont want to sound critical. i just have some suggestions. have you given thought to approaching some of the private sector to sponsor the bags. they get to put their logos on the bags in return for contributing to costs. the bags can then be sold much cheaper. i know a few years ago the solid waste unit was also offering these type of bags. maybe you can check with them to see if some partnership can be undertaken.
i commend you on the initiative and wish you all the best.
The bags where imported by the supermarkets who participated. Sourcing the bags from Barbados was explored but the offered cost of $20 was prohibitive. Thus the supermarkets had to collectively order unbranded bags to keep the cost down.
We applied for duty waiver but it was denied despite our point that over $10 million is spent to clean drains. Our intention was to have the bags at $3 or less.
Thanks to CBC,LIME, Gildan, Slam101, Starcom, Nation and BFP for spreading the word, without your audience reach No Plastic Day would have been a failure. BFP don`t underestimate your level of influence on society.
I drove to work this morning along the East Coast road, the garbage was amazing around Barclays Park, & the same this evening! It was the same after the last Bank Holiday when the BLP held their picnic there. Why is it so difficult to put all your garbage in a bag/container & take it home with you to dispose of? Plastic cups blowing everywhere, some garbage in bags hung from trees!? repulsive, tourists there must think we’re a disgustingly unmannerly lot.
The NCF and the persons who host marathons encourages this littering. Think about what happens at Kadooment when persons are allowed to throw cups on the ground. Only about here!
Grocery stores have used Plastic Bags for many years because they are lightweight and cheap. However, they are often only used once, and are made from petroleum.