SUVA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- A study conducted by Fijian Department of Environment revealed that the minimum number of plastic bags used annually in Fiji is around 50 to 60 million and plastic problem was growing in the region.
According to Fijivillage website on Wednesday, Fiji's Minister for Environment Parveen Bala said on Tuesday at the launch of the National Environment Day Campaign that to reduce problems with plastic, the Fijian government would be signing an agreement on solid waste management project to create awareness on recycling plastic materials.
Earlier in 2017, the Fijian government announced a levy of 10 Fijian cents (about 4.8 U.S cents) on the use of each plastic bag.
This levy is part of the island nation government's commitment to clean up Fiji. It would give every Fijian citizen incentive to shop more sustainably and limit the amount of plastic bags that ended up in the environment.
As announced in the 2017/2018 Fijian budget, all monies collected from this levy was part of the wider environment and climate adaptation levy.
It will fund environmental initiatives and programs that protect Fijian natural environment and climate adaptation projects to boost Fiji's resilience to the severe effects of climate change.
Voreqe Bainimarama, Fijian prime minister and Conference of the Parties (Cop 23)'s president, has expressed concerns about the increasing environmental pollution which has become an eye-sore in Fiji.
He said as leader of Fiji, he was disgusted with the amount of rubbish including plastics scattered everywhere.
Of the world's plastics, 9 percent is recycled, 12 percent is incinerated and 79 percent accumulates in landfills. Plastic disposal is a problem for the Pacific region, said the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP).
Environmentalists are pleading for the Pacific islands to completely ban plastic bags as a stepping stone for a plastic free region.
Anthony Talouli, pollution adviser for the SPREP, has said that countries in the Pacific were gradually moving towards banning plastic bags following continued discovery of plastic-made products in marine wildlife.
"We know that we have plastics and micro plastics in our fish, 97 percent of our fish in the region have plastic in them, and statistically we consume more fish than any other region in the world," he said.
Talouli said that research had discovered more than 600 tons of plastic waste was being dumped in the Pacific ocean every 10 minutes. Enditem
