Environmentalist Kammie Holder has launched a scathing attack on the importer of a popular Jamaican energy drink, accusing the company of flouting environmental laws and neglecting its corporate social responsibility as discarded bottles increasingly litter the island.
Holder, the chair of the Future Centre Trust, accused beverage distributors of prioritising profits over environmental responsibility, amid complaints that bottle returns were not being accepted.
Speaking about the distributor of the drink in question, he disclosed: “We have reached out after getting concerns from the hikers in this country and the public at large to that importer, who has treated us with scant respect as it related to their corporate social responsibility.
“Within 48 hours, I shall be writing to the Ministry of Commerce, under which the Returnable Containers Act falls, and I shall be writing to that company to ask them where is their corporate social responsibility as it relates to that drink that they import from Jamaica,” Holder said on Wednesday.
The Returnable Containers Act of 1986 establishes a mandatory deposit-and-refund system for empty beverage containers. In 2019, it was amended to expand the list of containers that should be accepted for return to include separate sealed glass, metal, aluminium, steel or plastic bottle, can, jar, carton or other receptacles which may consist of other materials that are recyclable or reusable and is capable of holding 3.8 litres or less. This amendment gives reusable items other than polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and glass bottles value, as they can be redeemed for between five cents to 15 cents each.
Some of the representatives from the 11 charities seen here with the donations they received.
Holder further lambasted the distributor’s boastful claims of financial success despite failing to address the pollution caused by their product. He stated: “It’s totally unacceptable that you can brag about your millions that you are making yearly [but] you have no concern for the environment. My voice may be strong, but I have zero tolerance for ignorance when it comes to our environment.
“If I was the minister, those drinks would be banned from Barbados. If you are going to be so bold to speak of the millions you are making but continue to import a drink from Jamaica, and then your bottles are littering this country—my beautiful country—and then the importers are not taking the bottles back, to then brag about the millions you are making yearly? Unacceptable.”
Holder also criticised the lax enforcement of littering laws, stating that despite the strengthening of environmental protection laws over the years, authorities have been slow to engage in strong enforcement measures.
He said: “Over the last 15 years, I’ve participated in Clean Up Barbados, and persons have been caught littering and you know what happens? They get a slap on the wrist, which to me is an epic insult to those persons who every year go and participate in Clean Up Barbados. We are talking about thousands of persons every year cleaning up behind dirty persons, but yet when a person is caught, they are told to go and get it cleaned up.
“Totally unacceptable, so until you have the police service, a ministry, an inspectorate taking it seriously, nothing will change in this country,” Holder declared.
Paul Bynoe, managing director of B’s Recycling, echoed Holder’s concerns and revealed that attempts to engage with the drink’s distributor had been unsuccessful.
Bynoe said: “I don’t understand his story with the agent. We try to get all the agents to make contact in order for them to receive them back or let us know what to do and it’s just not happening. I don’t know what to say to them or what to do in order for them to understand that they are breaking the law, and the lawmakers now got to step in and say ‘okay, this is right or this is wrong—as far as I see it.”
Efforts by Barbados TODAY to reach the distributor for comment also proved unsuccessful.
(SB/SZB)
The post Energy drink distributor slammed for ‘environmental neglect’ appeared first on Barbados Today.
