Portland residents urged to pick up better garbage disposal practices
Published:Monday | September 30, 2024 | 12:09 AMGareth Davis Sr/Gleaner Writer
Buff Bay, Portland;
Plastic bottles in alarmingly large proportions topped the items removed from coastlines in Portland by a team from spring water bottling company Lifespan Spring Water, during recent International Coastal Cleanup Day activities.
The targeted areas were the Blueberry and Buff Bay beaches, which had been under increased scrutiny for their large pile-ups of plastic waste and other debris which were washed down from rivers and gullies into the sea as a result of recent heavy rainfalls.
On September 22, a team from Lifespan, led by Maureen Bailey, senior staff recruiting officer, gathered along the beaches collecting and removing garbage littering more than 800 metres of space along the coasts.
“Today’s activity is our response to the International Coastal Cleanup Day and we are working alongside Liberty Learning Centre to clean this spot, and we have so far gathered at least 28 bags of garbage,” Bailey said.
“There is a whole lot more and we just want to encourage the residents to ensure that they dispose of their garbage properly, rather than dumping them in rivers, drains, and gullies. Lifespan protests the environment as best as we can, and so this is part of our thrusts to do so. Plastic bottles are the main items that are removed today, but there are also plastic bags, as well as Styrofoam boxes.
“It is important for us to protect our coastlines as preserving our environment is very important, and so the dumping of waste into streams and rivers is never a good thing. I am particularly happy for the turnout of students from Liberty Learning Centre, who have assisted us greatly with today’s clean-up exercise. The dumping of plastic materials does impact the environment in a negative way,” she added.
Elsewhere, a team headed by George Brown of the Optimist Club also carried out a clean-up exercise in Buff Bay where they removed large amounts of waste from the area. In Port Antonio, at Bryan’s Bay, a team from the National Water Commission, headed by Parish Manager Richard Williams, along with Acting Corporate Public Relations Manager Delano Williams, removed more than 30 bags of waste from the Bryan’s Bay beach.
International Coastal Cleanup Day was deemed a success, as multiple bags of refuse were removed from beaches extending from Buff Bay in west Portland to Hector’s River near the border of St Thomas in east Portland.