This week the Island became the first place in the British Isles to ban the use of disposable carriers, with the States heavily backing proposals brought by Deputy Inna Gardiner.
Long-time environmental campaigner Sheena Brockie, of Plastic Free Jersey, welcomed the move but called for ministers to follow their own recommendations for a ‘joined-up’ waste strategy to tackle the use of all single-use plastics.
‘I’m delighted that this has happened but I want to see a lot more happening,’ she said.
‘When Scrutiny did a report into reducing the use of plastics in Jersey there was a ministerial response in April last year. Off the back of that they said that the development of a new joined-up strategy is the next step.
‘But this ban really is piecemeal. I want to say in terms of what it has achieved it is amazing, but we are only focussing on a tiny part of things, when we should be focussing on the waste strategy as a whole.’
She added: ‘It is a first step but we should be aiming higher. There are so many other single-use plastics that we are using – bottles, plastic straws, cutlery, polystyrene food containers. We have plastic-free alternatives for all these.
‘Banning plastic bags is brilliant, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.’
Ms Brockie’s views were supported by Joy Thomson, chairwoman of the Jersey Federation of Women’s Institutes, with the group among those who initially campaigned to discourage the use of plastic bags use before the 5p charge was introduced.
‘I would like to see the thin plastic bags for fruit and vegetables gone too,’ she said.
‘There is no problem putting them in your own bag. Anything vulnerable is usually packed in stronger plastic, which might be able to be got rid of eventually but not yet.’
Ms Thomson said that she hoped that one of the positives to come out of the Covid-19 outbreak would be improved environmental awareness.
‘Working from home has worked for many people and businesses and should surely continue to a lesser degree from now on,’ she said.
‘Zoom meetings have also been ideal and certainly the Jersey WI board plan to continue these for at least some of our meetings, thus obviating journeys to the main office.
‘Cycling, especially on electric bikes, has become more popular and hopefully will continue. Obviously we do need to make car journeys but they could be considerably fewer with more thought.’
She added that she had contacted Environment Minister John Young about encouraging the installation of solar panels on new buildings.
