WHY BYO?
No longer only in our bottles, plastic is everywhere. In medical equipment, packaging and clothing but also, in our communities, waterways and oceans.
The durability of plastic is a blessing and a curse. In some form or another, all the plastic ever produced is here to stay. Even worse are single use plastics: tossed aside after an instant—only to spend 500+ years decomposing. Even biodegradable products use valuable resources that cannot be recovered in production and collection.
Due to the difficulty and high cost associated with collecting, sorting and processing items, most of our waste (91%!) ends up at landfills and disposal sites—not in recycling.
Bring Your Own (BYO) reusables to help protect and preserve our natural resources and the environment!
JAMAICA’S PLASTIC PROBLEM
15% of Jamaican waste is plastic, most of which is—you guessed it—plastic bottles. While Jamaica has made some major strides in recent years—including policies on single use items and collection programs for bottles, plastic pollution is still, visibly, a major issue.
At times, we become so detached from the natural world that we fail to understand the impact that our plastic waste has on the environment. In the ocean alone, there are several noticeable impacts:
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Marine organisms are harmed or killed when they ingest micro-plastics or become entangled in plastic waste
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Damage weakens the largest heat sink on the planet’s absorption ability as 90% of excess heat created by climate change is absorbed in oceans
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Plastics cause irreversible damage to coral reefs and mangrove forests which provide key protection for coastlines during extreme weather events
The government, corporate entities and the public all share responsibility in correcting this problem by reducing plastic production and distribution and improving and making use of effective disposal systems.
OUR MISSION
BYO Jamaica aims to reduce Jamaica’s plastic consumption and waste production by curbing the excessive use of disposables in the food and beverage industry.
PARTICIPATING LOCATIONS
GET INVOLVED
Have a query regarding Bring Your Own? Want to participate? Or do you wish to enroll on behalf of an organization or business? Please get in touch with us!
REDUCE YOUR WASTE PRODUCTION,
ONE HABIT AT A TIME
Established by
