The North Side Beautification Committee’s Trash It programme is working.
As Sheena Hurlstone exclaimed during a recent Daybreak programme reporting on efforts to clean-up our Island, ‘…the North Side District is so clean.’
And it is true. North Side is looking considerably cleaner and neater making it a better place for all of us to live and our guests to enjoy.
All Caymanians, guests to our Islands and the North Side Beautification Committee can be proud of this accomplishment. The committee’s on-going efforts in cleaning up the district include beach trash pick-up events, clean-up days for unsightly areas, sponsors to keep specific road segments picked-up and periodic special dumpster placements for use by residents to dispose of large items.
In one of its most effective and on-going programmes, the committee placed more than 50 trash barrels along roadways throughout North Side in the spring of 2006. It was the committee’s hope that people would use the barrels for their empty beverage containers, lunch trash and other small litter that had been traditionally tossed alongside the roads of North Side.
More subtly, it was hoped that the barrels would raise awareness in all North Side residents and quests as to the value of keeping our roadways clean, which in-turn could slowly help change the throw-away culture of our Island.
And it’s working as evidenced by the amount of roadside trash appearing in the barrels and the witnessed incidents of people stopping and making such deposits.
The Trash It programme has more than 15 volunteers from the North Side community who prepare the trash for DEH pickup and clean the barrels twice weekly. The volunteers report increasing use of the barrels, although some use is inappropriate.
The barrels are not meant for regular household trash, tyres, large household items, used kitty litter, construction materials and other common types of garbage.
Placing this type of trash in the Trash It barrels places an undue burden on the volunteers who must prepare the trash for pick-up on trash days and reduces the space for regular roadside trash. Island residents should set their household trash in front of their homes on trash collection days and use special collections for oversized items.
The North Side volunteers who give their time to making this program work are to be commended. Thanks also to members of the community and guests who properly use the Trash It barrels. This programme proves what can happen when people have pride in themselves and respect for our beautiful Island.
We hope that other districts would follow the lead of North Side. We want everyone to think the whole country is ‘so clean.’
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