Glass bottle ban in effect for Carnival

The Gov­ern­ment has en­forced its an­nu­al ban on glass bot­tles dur­ing Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day, re­strict­ing their use and pos­ses­sion in and around Car­ni­val events across the coun­try.

Un­der the Car­ni­val (Pro­hi­bi­tion of Glass Bot­tles) Reg­u­la­tions, 2026, made un­der the Pub­lic Hol­i­days and Fes­ti­vals Act, peo­ple who are not au­tho­rised may not have, use or car­ry glass bot­tles in any pub­lic place with­in 100 me­tres of a Car­ni­val event dur­ing Car­ni­val.

The ban ap­plies from 4.00 a.m. on Mon­day 16 Feb­ru­ary, 2026, to mid­night on Tues­day 17 Feb­ru­ary, 2026. It cov­ers Car­ni­val events in ar­eas in­clud­ing Port of Spain, San Fer­nan­do, Ch­agua­nas, Ari­ma, Scar­bor­ough, Crown Point and Rox­bor­ough, among oth­ers list­ed in the reg­u­la­tions.

Au­tho­rised per­sons in­clude hold­ers of liquor li­cences and spe­cial event li­cences, food ven­dors with Min­istry of Health badges, servers of reg­is­tered Car­ni­val bands, on-du­ty mu­nic­i­pal and SWM­COL em­ploy­ees, and on-du­ty em­ploy­ees of bev­er­age man­u­fac­tur­ers or dis­trib­u­tors.

Po­lice of­fi­cers may seize glass bot­tles found in the pos­ses­sion of unau­tho­rised per­sons with­out mak­ing an ar­rest. Seized bot­tles will be for­feit­ed and kept in po­lice cus­tody un­til dis­posed of as di­rect­ed by the Min­is­ter.

Any­one who breach­es the reg­u­la­tions faces a fine of $1,000 and im­pris­on­ment for six months on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion.