ENVIRONMENT Ministry permanent secretary Joshua Wycliffe has called on Fijian communities and councils to set up resistance hubs to promote a plastic free message.
He made the call while officiating at the recent opening of the Pacific Waste-Free Islands Inception workshop at Nadi’s Tanoa International Hotel.
Mr Wycliffe said everyone was part of all this dangerously poised and seriously threatening plastic pollution.
While acknowledging the Fijian Government’s effort in taking serious steps against the use of plastics, Mr Wycliffe also urged stakeholders on the need to put elements into action so that the global plastic waste issue was addressed.
“Billions of people globally depend on the ocean for their livelihood, it affects our health and ecosystems from which we rely and the integrity of our food supply chain,” Mr Wycliffe said.
“IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has been a strong base of which we could refer to, to get scientific evidences from so they provide us with information.
“I am told by the IUCN that equivalent with one garbage truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s ocean every minute and I am also told that eight million tonnes of plastic waste enter the oceans every year.”
Mr Wycliffe also acknowledged the work of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in combating plastic use in the region.
