Three hundred and thirty-six volunteers from 22 schools and 21 organizations, including community groups and the private sector, participated in the Jamaica Environment Trust’s (JET) 12^th Annual Beach Clean-Up last Saturday at the Palisadoes strip. Garbage tallies are still being collated, but volunteers collected about 280 bags of garbage, which included approximately 3,000 PET bottles.  

The activity was held to mark International Coastal Clean-Up Day, the largest one-day volunteer event of its kind supported this year by roughly 500,000 volunteers from more than 60 countries worldwide. 

“We focused more on education and less on numbers of volunteers this year,” said JET’s Chief Executive Officer, Diana McCaulay.  “Volunteers were trained in identifying PET bottles for recycling, and groups separated garbage collected on the beach into recyclables and non-recyclables,” Ms. McCaulay went on to say, “Beach clean-up is an educational activity rather than a clean-up exercise.  It would have taken thousands of people and heavy equipment to clear the beach of garbage, because of our poor solid waste practices.  As soon as it rains, the garbage discarded in gullies is washed into our coastal waters all over the island.  What JET is trying to do is make people more aware of what happens to garbage that is not disposed of properly.” 

After the clean up, a survey was conducted and many participants felt the clean-up had changed their attitude towards garbage disposal.  They also felt that more educational activities of this type should be done.  

According to Cigale Walters, a student teacher at Shortwood Teachers’ College, “It is good to have such practical educational activities. I certainly benefited from this exercise and I will return to next year’s beach clean-up and next time I’ll bring my students.” 

Other items found on the beach included car parts, pieces of furniture, toiletries and household items. The PET bottles were taken back to JET’s recycling depot at 11 Waterloo Road. 

This year’s beach clean-up exercise was sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Jamaica Broilers Group Ltd., Airports Authority of Jamaica, National Environmental Societies Trust (NEST), NEM Insurance Company and other members of corporate Jamaica.
 

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