Welcome > News > Eco bags wave goodbye to unwelcome visitors on St Eustatius Eco bags wave goodbye to unwelcome visitors on St Eustatius On windy days, teacher Lydia Richardson would find unpleasant visitors making a nuisance of themselves on the fences near her home. ‘They were old plastic bags,’ she says. ‘So many that the fences would be just filled with them. Hundreds of them are given out at our shops and supermarkets, and many get thrown away. Next thing you know all those bags are blowing around the place, messing it all up for everyone.’ So it’s not surprising that Lydia, 64, is 100% behind a war that is being fought on her home island of St Eustatius in the Dutch Caribbean to eradicate the plastic bag, a humble, everyday item that has become one of the great environmental scourges of our time. Environmental groups estimate that between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year, using up huge amounts of energy and resources in manufacture, clogging landfills, causing massive litter problems and killing as many as 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine animals each year. With countries such as Ireland reducing plastic bag consumption by 90% by forcing shoppers to pay for each bag used, conservationists and government on St Eustatius decided to play their part. A specially-designed ‘eco bag’, a 100% cotton biodegradeable grocery bag, has been hand-delivered free to every single household on the island by staff from St Eustatius National Park Foundation (STENEPA), a member of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and the conservation organisation that runs the local marine and land park and botanical garden. A government-funded radio and poster campaign, organised by STENAPA, has increased awareness of the plastic bag problem. Now, with local shops selling the new eco bags and the Island Government pledging an import tax on plastic bags, STENAPA parks manager Nicole Esteban is confident that their time on St Eustatius is almost up. ‘We are all tremendously proud that our tiny island of St Eustatius is literally leading the world in the fight against plastic bags,’ says Nicole, chairperson of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance. ‘ We hope that this campaign will be taken up by our collegues on all six islands.’ Islander Lydia, a teacher who has four children and two grandchildren, has been championing the eco bag for quite some time. ‘I always take my eco bag with me to the shop,’ she says. ‘I wouldn’t dream of accepting or using a plastic bag. They are a great idea.’