Le Grand Marche supermarket introduced back in 2009 reusable shopping bags with a beautiful photo of the Emilio Wilson Cultural and Historical park for sale to their customers who are conscious of the plastic litter problem on the island. The bags were endorsed by 3 local environmental groups who advocated reducing and eventually banning single use plastic bags on Sint Maarten. It was decided in 2009 that part of the proceeds of the reusable bag sales would fund the environmental groups.
At a small hand over on Wednesday, Mr.Anil Sabnani presented the Sint Maarten PRIDE foundation, EPIC and the Emilio Wilson Cultural and Historical Park foundation with donations from the reusable bag sales.
Mr.Sabnani told the groups that Le Grand Marche will be phasing out single use plastic bags in the near future and will replace them with paper and a new stock of re-usable bags.
Single use plastic bags pose serious pollution issues not only locally but are a main source of marine litter worldwide. Marine wildlife often choke and die from eating pieces of plastic that resembles food in the ocean. Sint Maarten PRIDE foundation and EPIC have been advocating for years to ban single use plastic bags in grocery stores as they end up in landfills for several decades never biodegrading. Many countries around the world have eliminated single use plastic bags as they too have experienced immense litter problems on land and at sea. Countries such as Italy, Mexico, Kenya, the Hawaiian islands have banned plastic bags offered at grocery stores. Local environmental groups suggest that shoppers use a re-usable bag to carry their groceries in order to preserve our natural environment free from plastic pollution.