-Banks DIH hopes to do more shredding
By Johann Earle
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says its laws should ensure that importers and manufacturers of beverages packaged in plastic bottles have some responsibility for collection, treatment and disposal of empty bottles after consumption of their contents.
But the agency is yet to rigorously enforce its laws, and efforts are spent encouraging persons to reduce the amount of plastic used in packaging and to opt for bio-degradable packaging.
Mayor of Georgetown Hamilton Green said recently that he wanted the City to draw down from at least 25 per cent of the environmental tax collected so that he could pay for the clean-up of the plastic waste.
The Customs Act (1952 revised 1995) states: “(1) Notwithstanding anything in this Act or in any other written law, there shall be raised, levied and collected a tax in this section referred to as an environmental tax, at the rate of ten dollars on every unit of non-refundable metal, plastic, glass or cardboard of any alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage imported into Guyana and every importer of such beverage shall pay tax to the Comptroller of Customs and Excise at the same time when any customs duties are paid.”
But the EPA said that it doesn’t know how the Environmental Tax collected by Government on the importation or manufacture of plastic bottled soft drinks is used, implying that the tax is not filtered down to the agency.
Sharifah Razack of the EPA’s Education, Information and Training Division said that overall responsibility for solid waste falls within the ambit of the Local Government Ministry, with the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) and Municipalities being required to implement systems for the collection and disposal of solid waste.
“To assist the Ministry with this responsibility the EPA has provided guidelines on criteria for selecting landfill sites and assessed and approved fifteen (15) sites identified by various RDCs as suitable for landfills. It must be noted however, that the construction of a landfill is a separate process which requires the EPA approval,” she said.
