The logos of the various organisations are depicted on the bottom of the bags to show GEBE's support of the local environment and the organisations' joint aim to reduce single-use plastic bags in St. Maarten.
Brooks stressed, "GEBE is a part of this community and GEBE is committed to our community and our environment. We are trying to bring about awareness about the dangers of plastics bags for the environment and for our community. But it is bigger than just us. It is a global problem. With the theme 'A Local Solution to a Global Problem,' GEBE aims to bring awareness to the growing problem of plastic and garbage in our environment, especially as we are not able to recycle."
The image on the bag depicts the general community joining together to solve this global problem. With images of plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean, the importance for the community, which relies on beaches, diving and marine life, is demonstrated to reduce contribution to this global problem and protect surroundings and beaches.
"By simply bringing along a reusable bag when shopping, it is possible to eliminate up to 1,664 single use plastic bags during the lifetime of the bag. Customers often complain that they forget to bring along their reusable bag when shopping.
"A tip for remembering to use your reusable shopping bag is to ensure it is in your car or bag when going grocery shopping. If you forget to bring it into the store, you can always ask your bag packer to put your groceries back in the cart and transfer them to your reusable bags when you get to your car," noted a press statement from GEBE.
Supermarkets Cake House and Market Garden have now banned single-use plastic bags. Jadira Veen of Pride noted that during a recent cleanup at Fresh Pond for World Wetlands Day, layers and layers of plastic filling more than 40 trash bags had been found between the mangrove trees.
"For the first time in our cleanups, there was still a mess of plastic when we left. We would need an additional 100 volunteers to remove all the plastic we found. Plastic is more than just an environmental issue. The congestion of plastic in these areas causes flooding, especially when drains and gutters become clogged with trash," she noted.
Rueben Thompson of EPIC, who has been championing the ban of plastic bags for some time now, said, "The reality of the matter is, however, that many stores will continue to provide these bags and consumers will continue to use them, unless legally restricted from doing so.
"It is therefore high time for our parliamentarians and ministers to take initiative as the people's representatives and show that they are the caretakers of the environment by passing legislation to ban disposable plastic carryout bags."
Tadzio Bervoets of Nature Foundation recounted his experience in finding plastic bags when conducting underwater research. He said plastic had been found smothering coral reefs and breaking coral when it was caught in the tide.
"To put the issue of plastic in the marine environment into perspective, we are expecting the turtle nesting season to start in approximately one month. St. Maarten is one of the few nesting places for the leatherback turtle, an endangered species of which only several dozen thousand are left in the world.
"These turtles' main diet is jellyfish, but they have difficulty in telling plastic bags from jellyfish and many turtles have died from suffocation or starvation by ingesting a plastic bag," he said.
This is the third time GEBE has distributed reusable bags on the islands of St. Maarten, Saba and Statia in support of the environmental organisations' goals to reduce plastic in the environment.
A total of 20,000 bags were distributed to GEBE's customers during December 2010. Also, a box of bags was given to each environmental organisation to use during educational presentations.
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