Brac residents lead efforts towards recycling

Clean-up at Long Beach, Cayman Brac

(CNS): A grassroots organisation on Cayman Brac, which formed with the express goal of getting a proper recycling programme going on the Sister Islands, is looking for sponsors for two containers so that the waste collected can be transported off-island. While the George Town dump (a.k.a. Mount Trashmore) receives a lot of public attention due to the enormity of the problems there, there are still no real plans to deal with the dumps on the two Sister Islands, where the garbage is also piling up. “Mini-Mount Trashmore” on Cayman Brac still contains most of the debris from Hurricane Paloma in 2008.

Now the group of concerned citizens, Sustainable Sister Islands (SSI), is working to help coordinate government and private enterprise for the most efficient and unified system of waste management that would consider the unique infrastructures of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman to address the two islands’ solid waste and reduce landfill deposits.

SSI spokesperson Kathleen Bodden-Harris said, “We feel the Sister Islands have exceptional infrastructures to that of Grand Cayman.  It is our purpose to call attention to such details and educate the public in proper processing procedures so that everyone is on board with a simplified yet unified system.”

Their immediate goal is to set up recycling depots on Cayman Brac that are very visible and easily accessible, but SSI said they will eventually need containers to remove the garbage off-island and are hoping that someone will step forward.

The goal: to ship the Sister Islands’ garbage off to be recycled

Bodden-Harris explained that a waste management company, JUNK, accepts plastic for recycling and other varieties of solid waste for processing on the Brac, while government is currently collecting and recycling aluminium and batteries.

“It is our hopes to widen our recycling and processing efforts by working with both government and JUNK. Plastic is a major source of shoreline litter, harmful to both our tourism and, most importantly to our endangered marine and wildlife species,” she said.

The local grassroots group has been successfully negotiating with the Departmental of Environmental Health and the management of JUNK by liaising the community needs and researching equipment and efforts that best service the smaller populations of the Brac and Little Cayman.

SSI emphasises “the five Rs” — Remove, Reduce, Rinse, Reuse and Recycle. Bodden-Harris said the “rinse” step is too often overlooked and if people don’t clean out the garbage as they are collecting it, it will start to smell and attract bugs and rats. Cans and cardboard boxes can be compressed by stepping on them to make sorting and eventual shipping easier, and many household items, such as Ziplock bags, can be re-used, while organic waste can be turned into compost or used to set up feeding stations for soldier crabs, she said.

Walking the walk, Bodden-Harris has been collecting cardboard, bottles and cans for a year, stored in her garage for the day they can be shipped off, and she says she has drastically reduced the amount of garbage she puts out for DEH to collect.

The group plans to motivate the community, beginning with the school system, businesses, as well as the tourism and watersports industries. School presentations have already begun and beach clean-ups have been ongoing since February. The next on is on 16 May for the ongoing clean-up of Long Beach at the end of Spot Bay. (See the Facebook page here for more details)

Bodden-Harris said underwater clean-ups will start in June, as well as efforts to remove litter from the roadside and community parks, and all residents and visitors are invited to join them.

“We’ve had an enthusiastic and supportive response from all participants,” she said.

The group unveiled their slogan “Be Part of the Solution … Not the Pollution! RECYCLE NOW!”  on 16 April at a community meeting at the Panama Canal in the Creek on the northern side of Cayman Brac.

Little Cayman has been responsive to the initiative, Bodden-Harris said, and members there have been making their own efforts independently or in collaboration with those of Cayman Brac.

Any and all interested parties are welcome to participate in the clean-up and recycling events.  For more information, call 916-3960.  

Visit the Facebook page: GREEN Team CB Community Beach Clean UP for May