By Kenicia Francis
Over the past 60 years, around eight billion tons of plastic have been produced, 90.5 percent of which hasn’t been recycled, reported a recent study in the journal Science Advances.
This prompted the theme for this year’s Earth Day, ‘Planet vs Plastic’, issuing a challenge of a 60% reduction in the production of plastic by 2040.
Odel Warner, a Barbudan living in the United States who regularly visits the island, had his own challenge for the government and the economic developers frequenting the island.
“Get a real program on how to implement a garbage disposal system. It can be done. PLH, all the rich white folks coming through this beautiful island ought to help us do better,” he said.
“I will give credit. Since I was here the last two years, they have a system to bring your empty water bottles rather than discard them on the street; they now recycle. That is an improvement,” he continued.
“Climate change is real. Mother Nature said treat me right and I’ll treat you right. If you don’t, bigger than Irma will come.”
The destruction caused by Hurricane Irma, and the ensuing construction taking place on the island has caused a significant buildup of garbage and debris.
Jacklyn Frank, an appellant in the disputed airport case, suggested that Antigua’s reduction in financial aid to Barbuda, and the construction workers coming to the island has exacerbated the trash pile-up.
“There is a lot of rubbish lying around Barbuda. Some of it is natural greenery that’s not been kept in good condition. And there has been a dispute with the garbage collector. In part, that’s due to when Antigua decided to reduce the amount of subvention that Barbuda gets,” she explained.
She continued, “The money had to be prioritised, so it was like, ‘who do you pay?’ You pay the workers so they can feed themselves and their families. So, some things were left, or they couldn’t be paid as often.”
However, Frank added, “But at the same time, people will come to the island to work, and maybe they have a yard, but there’s no garbage bin. They’ll either dump it on the road, or they’ll go somewhere like the Fisheries, and find the big garbage bin and try and dump it. But that’s usually full to overflowing, because garbage isn’t being picked up as often.”
In closing, she stated, “The people coming are just coming to do a job. The land means nothing to them. They don’t have the same respect for it. I’ve been driving behind a vehicle and they opened a window and threw out an empty can. Barbudans don’t do that. Barbudans know better than to just dump on what’s theirs, because they use the land. It feeds them, they go hunting. It’s part of their entertainment, they go camping. They know to look after it, and then it will be there for them and their generations to come.”
This concern was seemingly shared by seven residents of the island who came together to form The Devotional Group, an organisation dedicated to giving back to the community of Barbuda. On Saturday they led a cleanup of the Barbuda Fisheries and the wharf area. They expressed concern about the amount of garbage surrounding the area where they mainly get their fish and lobster.
