Pirates say no to plastic
Reusable steel mug for Pirates Week
(CNS Local Life): This year’s Pirates Week Festival, which starts 2 November on Cayman Brac, is including an environmental message, with its #PiratesAgainstPlastic campaign. In addition to marking the 60th anniversary of the Cayman Islands Coat of Arms, the festival will be “Celebrating the Seas!” to raise awareness on how to reduce single-use plastics.
Overall, the green theme will “promote mindfulness on how we can keep our oceans clean both for our health, and for the survival of marine life”, Shayma Hamdi-Romanica of festival organiser, the Tourism Attraction Board, said in a press release, adding that normal plastics take up to 400 years to degrade, and Styrofoam never degrades.
“We also would love for other large festivals in Cayman to follow suit, and implement biodegradable disposable food items in their food courts,” she added.
The organisers are including several green initiatives at this year’s Pirates Week. For one thing, all vendors have been requested to use biodegradable food containers and cutlery at the food courts. Toward that end, “We have ordered bagasse (sugarcane-based) food containers, and cornstarch cutlery, which the vendors can purchase from us at an affordable rate (all in stock at the Pirates Week gift shop),” Hamdi-Romanica said.
A beach clean-up event has also been planned, and all bars will be free of plastic straws, and will have biodegradable cups.
The organisers have also ordered reusable, custom-branded steel mugs, which people can purchase at the gift shop, and use throughout the festival, including the bars, while eliminating all plastic bags from that store.
“There sure is a long way to go, but this is a good start,” Hamdi-Romanica pointed out. “We want this initiative to be part of our festival for future years to come, especially in the food courts, as that is where most of our single-use plastic is used each year.”
The official dates for the festival this year are 2-4 November in Cayman Brac, 8-12 November in Grand Cayman and 16-18 November in Little Cayman.
Category: Environment, Events
