A long-awaited Bill designed to stamp out single-use plastic pollution was tabled in Parliament today, eight years after it was first promised.

But no plastic items will be banned until after the legislation is passed and consultations take place, said Jaché Adams, the Minister of Public Works and Environment.

He said the Single-Use Plastics Act 2026 would take a phased approach to implementation and items such as plastic bags, straws, food packaging, water bottles and cutlery would not be banned until consultations had taken place.

The issue was raised in the 2018 Speech to the Throne with the goal to eliminate them by 2022.

Mr Adams said it was “a Bill not designed to ban every item overnight, but to establish the legal framework for Bermuda’s transition away from the most harmful single-use plastics through consultation, science and a phased, responsible approach”.

He said of the Bill: “It creates the legislative structure we need to regulate single-use plastics effectively and sustainably. It empowers the Government to add items to a schedule only after consultation, only after listening to stakeholders and only after determining that alternatives are viable for both our environment and our economy.”

As such, he said the schedule of the Bill had been intentionally left empty.

“We are not rushing ahead with bans without first hearing from businesses, environmental organisations, students, seniors and all those who interact with these products every day,” he said.

“Instead, this Bill lays the foundation on which we will build a careful, well-managed transition that works for the entire country.”

Entities to be consulted include environmental non-governmental organisations, retailers and grocers, restaurants and small businesses, importers and manufacturers, and waste management experts.

Read more here: https://www.royalgazette.com/environment/news/article/20260328/single-use-plastics-legislation-tabled-in-the-house/