Haiti’s War on Plastic Bags, Styrofoam

Police raided three warehouses to show that the government is cracking down on a nearly year-old ban on Styrofoam take-home containers and plastic bags.

August 19, 2013

PORT-AU-PRINCE – The Haitian government is getting serious about enforcing a ban on Styrofoam take-home containers and plastic bags.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office last week, reports The Associated Press, said that authorities confiscated bags and containers at warehouses at three locations in Port-au-Prince.

The news source adds that plastic bags and foam containers are “a huge problem in Haiti, not just as a source of litter but because they clog storm drainage channels in the flood-prone country.” The government initially imposed the ban in October 2012, but it has been widely ignored.

According to The Guardian, Environment Minister Jean Francois Thomas said the raid proved “we are serious about a serious problem.” The government plans to conduct more raids across the country to seize foam containers, which mainly come from neighboring Dominican Republic — the country Haiti is engaged in a trade war with.

Thomas says that the Haitian government is determined to break the country’s “bad habit” of using Styrofoam, and is working to import biodegradable takeaway containers and bags. “We will offer a lot of help, such as lower import tariffs for biodegradable products,” he told the news source.

“Haitians bought food and brought along their own metal containers to take it home. What’s wrong with doing that again?” Thomas said.

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