St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN) – The St. Kitts Tourism Authority launched an internal recycling project called Sustainable SKTA.
Staff from the St. Kitts Tourism Authority explained the rationale behind the internal initiative, which includes inspiring other organisations to mirror this initiative.
The Ministry of Tourism and the Sustainable Destination Council has been working on moving St. Kitts and Nevis closer to banning single-use plastics through awareness campaigns and various initiatives to change the culture in the Federation of heavy use of plastics.
According to the World Bank, the Federation is ranked four among countries that generate the most trash per capita, with 5.45 kilograms of waste per capita every day.
With much of that plastic ending up on our beaches and oceans, plastic use and improper disposal have long-standing negative implications on marine life, health, nutrition, and tourism.
The implication of single-use plastic and the plastic industry on the environment and climate change should not be lost. Experts say the plastic industry is responsible for 232 million tons of planet-warming emissions yearly.
An estimated 171 trillion plastic particles, which would weigh 2.3 million tons, pollutes the world’s oceans, creating “plastic smog”. Marine life is endangered from the plastics, culling the ocean population from either getting tangled in the plastic or mistaking it for food.
Plastic can also increase ocean acidity by releasing toxic chemicals into the water. Experts say the amount would increase 2.6 times between now and 2040 without urgent action to change policy.
Continued dependence on plastics could only increase the negative impact the industry has had on the environment.
