Minister Orlando Habet responds to Spanish Lookout Community  

Two weeks ago, during the Spanish Lookout expo in Cayo, several community leaders criticized the government’s performance. One significant point of contention revolved around what was perceived as excessive regulation in the business sector, particularly the prohibition of single-use plastics. One of the persons who criticized the government was Harry Letkeman. He said he was disappointed with the government, saying the outcome fell short of expectations. In response, Minister of Minister of Sustainable Development Orlando Habet defended the government’s actions.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Minister of Sustainable Development

“I think that the  criticism is unfair. By having a piece of legislation through the regulations that we formulated, I think it was a start. And we told the public that it was a start. We know that everything isn’t going to work 100 percent in the beginning. As a matter of fact, it was for single use plastics. We didn’t even look at other plastics. Now, the importers and the producers of plastics locally have a standard that they have to abide by.  Now,  the Bureau of Standards sets the standards and they do the review of the documentation from the importing country or the producers to make sure that they are meeting the standards. We know that things can be falsified. It comes to the Department of Environment, they do a review and then they issue the licenses. So, we are really on the receiving end. However, one thing that we didn’t have was and I think the importers especially, and some of the local producers, knew that we don’t have the capabilities for testing.  So what we did initially was to do a few tests and then send it outside for testing. Well, three samples cost us 70, 000 US dollars to test. So we were sure that it was something that was feasible and that we couldn’t continue doing on our own. However, recently we obtained the equipment that now we will be able to do our own local testing. for these biodegradable products and so this will now stop. The Department of Environment has done a study and they already have a study that will be revealed shortly  to cabinet in which they will show, where the files are where we need to go, but In addition to that, we have already anticipated what was going to happen. So we already are modifying the regulations so that then we can step it up.”