Clean and Green Guyana is teaming up with supermarkets countrywide to introduce reusable/biodegradable shopping bags to their customers as part of a wider effort aimed at teaching the public to make more environmentally-friendly choices.
According to a press release, the three-month pilot project is being overseen by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. The objective of this exercise is to reduce the use of plastic bags by consumers and businesses by making the public aware of safer choices.
“Plastic bags are a major environmental threat in Guyana and [worldwide]. If plastic bags are buried in landfills, they may take up to 1,000 years to break down; and in the process they separate into smaller toxic particles that contaminate soil and water,” the group said.
Clean and Green Guyana will provide selected supermarkets with reusable bags for distribution to customers and, along with these supermarkets, will promote and encourage their use through in-store messages, and messages delivered by cashiers and store attendants. The group will also interact with customers through social media on behalf of the supermarkets, to encourage them to use the ‘green’ bags. Clean and Green Guyana hopes that the initiative will prove successful and provide a sustainable mechanism to expand these supermarkets’ social media engagement with their customers.
