According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2019 article titled ‘The Caribbean addresses the scourge of plastic pollution’, it states that seventy to eighty-five per cent of marine litter in the Caribbean Sea comes from land, and most of it consists of plastics. The environmental, social, and economic impacts of plastics on the environment are well known: waterways get choked and flood more often, and sewage systems become clogged, providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes and raising the risk of transmission of waterborne diseases like dengue; plastics enter the food chain through contaminated soil and water; and visual pollution impacts tourism and recreational activities.
Our webinar discusses the work of 3 organizations representing Trinidad And Tobago, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and Jamaica, as they discuss their roles in plastics recycling in the Caribbean as island states.