Time to clean up our act / Letters

Publication: Daily Nation
Paper Section And Page: 10
Paper Date: Mon, Dec 10, 2001

The Litter Patrol of the Sanitation Service must be congratulated for their efforts in picking up the huge quantities of litter that Barbadians spread around our beautiful island on a daily basis. Their white garbage bags can be seen often alongside the roads, and there should be even more litter collectors to deal with the huge volume. However, in conjunction with their efforts there are several proactive moves that should be undertaken.

First of all, more garbage cans should be placed in public areas like our towns, parks, beaches, bus stops and outside our schools. We must make it easier for citizens not to litter. Outside of many schools the litter is disgraceful, and if we condition our youth to litter the cycle of disregard for the environment will never be broken.

The Government should also provide each household with a plastic garbage can with a lid. This is done in Martinique and the results are very encouraging. I always heard that Martinique was a dirty island, but I was recently there and it is cleaner than Barbados. There are plenty of plastic garbage cans with lids all over the island. These cans would help to prevent dogs from strewing garbage all over the place and encourage Barbadians to dispose of their garbage properly.

People still drive out into the countryside and drop bags of garbage at the side of the road and into gullies, and this would help to solve this problem. Yes, this is expensive, but Government could use the Environmental Levy, which currently disappears into the Government's coffers.

Skips for old appliances should be placed in each parish so that people could go at any time and drop them off. There is still way too much illegal dumping of old stoves and fridges.

Litter wardens should be employed in Bridgetown to give tickets (similar to parking tickets) to people who litter. This would help send a message to the public that  Government is serious about enforcing the litter laws for the first time in history.

Perhaps an educational programme similar to the one done for the introduction of the seatbelt law should also be done. Unfortunately, the Government does not seem interested in cleaning up the island.

There are some excellent ideas originating in the Solid Waste Division of the Ministry of Health, but they do not come to fruition. Our new Minister of Health has his hands full with the hospital and I am concerned about who will look after our environment.

Sadly, none of the above ideas are new and they have been suggested before in the media, but the environmental malaise in Barbados continues. We used to take comfort that our neighbours were dirtier, but excluding Trinidad, our neighbours in the Eastern Caribbean have cleaned up their act and left us way behind. We have to clean up our island for our visitors and more importantly, for ourselves.

­ Peter Bynoe