Vincentians urged not to abuse new garbage receptacles

Failed bids to introduce garbage bins to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the past have resulted in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Chamber of Industry and Commerce taking a phased approach to the introduction of the receptacles here.{{more}}

President of the Chamber, Angus Steele, addressing the introduction of new bins that are to be placed first in Kingstown, said that Vincentians should not expect to see the stainless steel garbage receptacles at every corner anytime soon, because the project is expected to take years.

“This project will be rolled out in a very slow, phased, controlled and careful approach,” Steele indicated on Friday at Heritage Square where the launch took place.

“We are going to be starting firstly with three bins around Kingstown and thereafter, as we monitor the project, we could expand to additional bins into additional communities and eventually throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“We at the Chamber certainly do not want this project to be a repeated failure of certain projects prior to this one.”

By repeated failure, Steele was referring to attempts in the past to place bins around Kingstown which did not have favourable results.

Minister of Health and the Environment Douglas Slater, who was at Friday’s launch explained why:

“I want you to know that the Solid Waste Management Unit had tried, and unfortunately the truth is people have stolen… others had used them to dump dead animals which creates a major problem, and it is for some of these reasons why we no longer put out those.

“I am certain that some of you could recall when we had those large bins about, but people abused them and we had to weigh the pros and cons of having them, so we decided to try something else.

The consensus of the speakers of the day, which included Minister of Tourism, Glen Beache, Manager of the Solid Waste Management Unit, Winsbert Quow, and Sharon Hall of We Can, the Trinidadian producers of the bins, was that public awareness on garbage disposal needed to be heightened.

To this, Steele indicated that an intensive awareness campaign will take place. He mentioned that as part of this awareness drive, persons will be guided on the importance of recycling and separating garbage.

In a call for Vincentians to take pride in their environment, persons were asked to encourage each other to refrain from littering, and report those who were seen damaging or destroying the bins.

The project, which was initiated since 2007, was said to be a welcome one which would eventually have a positive effect on St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“The Chamber sees a project like this as very important to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and we do expect that it would be a challenge. Just as it took us three years to get us where we are, I imagine it will take us much longer to where we want it to be,” Steele noted.

The bins were unveiled by Minister of Culture and Urban Development, René Baptiste, and Minister of Tourism, Glen Beache.(jj)