海地政府於10月1日起禁止進口、生產和販售黑色PE（聚苯乙烯polyethylene）塑膠袋及發泡聚苯乙烯（保麗龍）容器。
海地總理拉蒙特（Laurent Lamothe）透過邁阿密先鋒報表示，「這是一個合理、合乎邏輯的決定。進口及製造可生物分解（biodegradable ）的物品，將有利於海地的短期、中期和長期的環境利益。」
海地總統馬德立（Michel Martelly）是在8月頒布禁塑令，希望能解決首都太子港市街道與運河上的塑膠垃圾問題。
此項禁令曾引起民眾誤解，以為裝飲用水的塑膠袋也一併禁用，因而發起抗議；而後政府透過廣告宣導，明確告知飲用水塑膠袋不在此限，抗議活動隨即停止。
不過，從鄰國多明尼加進口的PE杯盤，恐怕難以禁絕。
海地環保人士對政府的此表示贊同，但他們也擔心政府無法確實執行禁令。 以改善生活環境為宗旨的非營利性組織「海地社區」（Haiti Communitere）成員Sam Bloch表示，萬一禁令推展不順，希望政府能有後續因應計畫。
海地社區於太子港市，目前正著手進行一項「Ubuntublox計畫」，推動以回收塑料製成的塑料塊（Ubuntublox）來建造房屋。該計畫可以解決兩個問題：清理街道上的塑料垃圾，利用耐震材料來重建這座地震頻發的城市。
這種塑料塊是由美國德州的Harvey Lacey所發明 。「海地社區」於2011年10月通過該計畫，目前透過兩名自加拿大的志工Tim Overton與Roxanne Duigou來執行。
Ubuntublox團隊收集街道清潔站及垃圾回收站的保麗龍食物容器與塑料薄膜，利用這些自太子港運河與渠道中撈起的物料，重新作為建築材料。
他們將塑料材料填塞至米袋中，並透過手動壓縮機壓成均一尺寸的塊體。Ubuntublox質輕且有韌性，比一般的磚頭或混凝土塊更抗震。最近，一座Ubuntublox房屋模型通過了模擬地震規模8.2的抗震測試，只受到極小損傷。
「海地社區」今年藉由鄰近社區Cite Soleil 20名婦女的協助，建造了一間防颶風及防震的Ubuntublox房屋。該屋的原料，即是從附近運河中清理回收的塑膠袋與數以千計的保麗龍容器。
今年6月，「海地社區」宣布其正在建造一個工廠，用廢棄塑膠袋和廢保麗龍容器生產塑料塊。 Bloch表示，我們的目標是為海地建立更多塑料塊造的房屋。
總理拉蒙特表示，禁塑令是為了保護海地的海岸線、海岸及現存的紅樹林。他希望這項禁令能有效消除該國成堆的垃圾。他對記者表示，有毒物質阻塞了海地95%的污水處理系統，並造成貧困社區的大規模淹水。這些垃圾讓海地每年損失5000多萬美元，因此需要慎重處理。
Haiti’s government has banned the import, manufacture and marketing of black plastic polyethylene bags and polystyrene foam containers as of October 1.
“This is a logical decision and makes sense,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told the “Miami Herald.” “Importing, manufacturing biodegradable items will benefit Haiti’s short, mid- and long-term environmental interest.”
The Haitian plastic ban was first announced in August in a presidential decree issued by President Michel Martelly in an effort to clear the streets and canals of Port-au-Prince of plastic waste.
After public protests based on the misconception that the plastic bags used for drinking water were being banned, people learned from the government’s TV ads that drinking water bags are exempt and the protests died down.
The polystyrene cups, plates and trays, imported from the neighboring Dominican Republic, may be harder to eradicate.
Haitian environmentalists applaud the government’s decision, but they fear Haiti will not be able to enforce the ban.
“I would like to see them have a contingency plan if it doesn’t [work out],” said Sam Bloch of Haiti Communitere, a nonprofit group in Port-au-Prince that works among Haitians to improve environmental conditions.
One Haiti Communitere project, recycled plastic block houses built of Ubuntublox, could solve two problems at once – cleanse the streets of plastics and also rebuild the earthquake-prone city with quake-resistant homes.
Ubuntublox were invented by Harvey Lacey of Texas. The project was adopted by Haiti Communitere in October 2011 and is now being run by Tim Overton and Roxanne Duigou, two volunteers from Canada.
The Ubuntublox team organizes street clean-ups and rubbish collection points to take Styrofoam food containers and film plastic out of the canals and drains around Port-au-Prince to repurpose as building materials.
The plastic materials are packed into rice bags and compressed into uniformly sized building blocks with a manual compression machine. The lightweight, flexible nature of the Ubuntublox makes them far more earthquake resistant than typical brick or concrete blocks. A model Ubuntublox home was recently tested for seismic resistance, and passed a simulated 8.2 earthquake with minimal damage.
Haiti Communitere constructioned a hurricane and earthquake-resistant Ubuntublox house this year with the assistance of 20 women from the Cite Soleil neighborhood. The recycled plastic bags and thousands of foam containers used to build the house were reclaimed from neighborhood canals.
Bloch said the goal is to build more Ubuntublox homes for Haiti. In June, Haiti Communitere announced it is building a factory to make Ubuntublox out of waste plastic bags and styrofoam containers.
Prime Minister Lamothe says the plastic ban is intended to protect Haiti’s coastlines, shores and remaining mangroves. He wants the ban to help clear the country’s heaps of garbage. He told the Herald that toxic material clogs “95 percent of our sewage system, creating mass floods in poor neighborhoods … that is costing the state more than $50 million a year if we had the means to clean up.”
※ 全文及圖片詳見：ENS
作者
In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.
