Legislation banning single-use plastics should come to MPs’ attention before the end of the year, the home affairs minister said.

According to Walter Roban, a paper is being prepared to present to Cabinet before the end of the summer “and we’ll be able to begin the process of the initial phases of the elimination of single-use plastic”.

The Government’s intention to ban SUPs was first announced in the 2018 Speech from the Throne, which said that they would be eliminated by 2022.

Since then the initiative appears to have stalled and Beyond Plastic Bermuda, an umbrella environmental group, urged the Government to pass the legislation.

Mr Roban disagreed that legislation had stalled and said: “We have taken a deliberate consultative process.

“This process started with us wanting to engage with the industry and the stakeholders who will be directly impacted by a single-use plastic ban, so we’ve taken time to have dialogue with the commercial community around this,” the minister said.

He added: “We also know that the market is still devising solutions to single-use plastic usage … unnecessary single-use plastic usage.

“There are some single-use plastics which are still essential, such as medical products or products used to handle meat and perishable goods that are going be more difficult over time to get rid of.

“The stuff that can be dealt with, we will deal with.”

Mr Roban said the paper “will be taken to the Cabinet within a short period of time” and he hoped to bring legislation “before the end of the year”.

Read more here: https://www.royalgazette.com/environment/news/article/20240717/legislation-to-ban-sups-expected-to-be-tabled-this-year/