Press

Saint Lucia Launches Environmental Campaign On The Use Of Plastics

Department of Public Information
Organization of American States
Caribbeean News
Wednesday, September 17, 2003

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC — St. Lucia has launched an “Attack on Plastics” campaign geared towards sensitising the population on the dangers the commodity poses to the environment. The Solid Waste Management Authority (SWMA) said that a study conducted last year showed that “plastics represented a significant percentage of our waste stream”.

“Basically plastics in general accounted for 13 per cent of deposited waste and this we felt was quite significant in relation to other waste components like organics, glass and metals,” the SWMA’s education and public officer Carleen Jules said. The campaign has brought together some of the major environmental stakeholders here including the SWMA, the Castries City Council (CCC),the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO), the National Conservation Authority (NCA) and the St. Lucia National Trust. The campaign will attempt to educate the nation on the proper disposal of plastic waste and to mobilize the populace to participate in clean-up activities island-wide.

The organisers said that lessons learnt from the initiative will be incorporated into ways and mean of getting the campaign to maintain sustainability, an element seen as critical to the overall success of venture.
“A lot of our highways and byways once cleaned via pruning and the like, stand out not because of their mere beauty but because of what is left and remains as an eye sore and by that I mean the plastic residue. This in terms of our tourism appeal does no justice to the notion of ‘Simply Beautiful St. Lucia’,” said Jules.