Following Caribbean development over a period of years very often leads to an almost chronic sense of exasperation over the continued failure of our societies to intervene decisively on questions that beg eminently sensible and simple solutions.
This week, I am focusing on just one issue, but also invite you to apply an equal measure of attention to a wider policy and legislative environment which, in my view, is characterised by an inexplicable failure to address matters that, in some instances, far less capable societies have been able to deal with.
Listening to Tuesday's debate on the bottled water industry, staged by the Caribbean Water and Waste Water Association, it occurred to me—based on the views of Caribbean scientists, policymakers, regulators and entrepreneurs on the stage and in the room—that we have been playing the absolute fool on the question of beverage container policy and legislation.
We can check the files and call the names of government ministers who have promised to take this matter to parliament. They all deserve an 'F' grade for both their lack of real commitment and minimal actual political effort.
Barbados settled this matter of beverage containers 30 years ago. So don't tell me anything about small size or lack of resources or political manoeuvres.
Let's take a bet that the responsible government ministry here has vast stacks of studies, policy documents and other instruments including draft legislation on the management of containers used for a variety of beverages, chief among which are the plastic bottles used in the commercial water sector.
Everyone does not have to agree with every fine detail, but certainly there are options that greatly reduce the number of moving institutional parts in a process designed by various versions of the Beverages Container Bill to keep used plastic bottles, cardboard and styrofoam boxes and other containers out of our waterways, streets, beaches and neighbourhoods.
There is no need to overload three, four or five agencies with this.
I have heard about proposed solutions that involve everyone from the EMA to the Treasury to the Green Fund to Miss Merlene from Tobago. Scrap that plan, please.
Designate an agency to receive deposit revenue on such containers and work out a decentralised process for payment of collectors and move forward. And, also, why can't this process not be assigned to a private entity? Surely, there are financial surpluses that can be derived from providing such a service.
This does not mean to say I automatically agree that private entities perform better than statutory agencies.
My encounters with private sector lethargy, inefficiency and indifference to consumer needs tell me there is no fixed rule on this.
But what I do know, is once you start talking about money, state agencies should be avoided like Zika-bearing mosquitoes.
The minute you have to move funds between official agencies, you will find that 1,000 50-page forms will become necessary, together with a complex network of approvals and disapprovals and enough time-wasting to ensure that an enterprising youngster with a truckload of bottles does not receive his just due within a reasonable time-frame.
The bottled water folks already have a system in place for the five gallon containers and for decades now people have known that glass bottles are meant to be returned somewhere.
I also agree with Dominic Hadeed, one panellist in Tuesday's debate, that while having specially designated bins and school and NGO collection projects are useful, they do not and cannot address the voluminous nature of the challenge we face.
In some countries, plastic beverage containers are banned altogether.
Last year, San Francisco imposed a ban followed by several other towns and municipalities in the US, Montreal proposes to follow up on its ban on plastic bags with restrictions on plastic bottles and there are plans to do the same throughout the European Union. Talk of such a move in Jamaica is creating quite a stir but the matter is being discussed in a mature manner there.
In the bigger countries, the relative harm on eco-systems is substantially less than obtains in our small island territories of the Caribbean.
Some would prefer to focus on the industries that make use of these products, albeit in response to what are determined to be market demand and taste. So, it is acceptable for Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat to contend that "bottled water is one of the biggest frauds being practised on the consumers in the country" and for the CWWA conference to confront the science on this.
I cannot say I recognised a clear "winner" on this particular question, but the high quality exchange that occurred at the debate clearly proved that in the Caribbean we have people with the knowledge and commitment to this space to bring us to the point of addressing the concerns on the basis of science and not on political connection and idle talk.
This is an urgent and very serious issue. On too many an environmental sore, discarded plastic can be gratuitously located.
