Published 7 June 2019
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and News Source
Delwayne Delaney, Senior Officer for the Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
“A ban on plastic can affect small businesses as the alternatives are expensive,” said Mr. Delaney. “However, as other countries come on board, and the demand for it starts to go up, it will drive down the unit price of the alternatives.
He noted that businesses in the Federation have already started to use alternatives, including Ital Creations, which uses corn cellulose containers.
Mr. Delaney said there are business opportunities to be derived from a plastic ban. He made mention of the Caribbean Green Tech Start-up Bootcamp, which was held from March 19 to 21, 2019, in an effort to build the green ecosystem and empower entrepreneurs to bring innovative green technologies to market and to address climate change.
He stated that the production of utensils was one of the projects.
“So definitely it would have an impact on businesses, perhaps it would drive up the costs of goods sold especially food items, but again perhaps with the intervention of government to levy some of those importation costs, we would be able to keep the prices of our goods at a reasonable value where we don’t feel the effects both on the consumer side and the supplier side,” he said.
The senior officer reiterated that a ban on plastic gives opportunities for small businesses to create an alternative instead of importing items such as plastic bags. “Perhaps we can create our own market within the local context,” he said.
“Where there is no issue there is no chance for opportunity. So this itself presents an opportunity for small businesses to move into the market as some sort of niche strategy to get involved themselves here locally,” said Mr. Delaney.
