Hundreds take part in delayed Earth Day clean-up

| 21/09/2020 | 8 Comments
Cayman News Service
Earth Day clean-up 2020

(CNS): Hundreds of people across all three Cayman Islands came out on Saturday morning to fill thousands of bags as they cleared the streets, beaches, parks, bustops, roadsides and even mangrove wetlands of rubbish during the delayed Earth Day clean-up. The Chamber of Commerce re-arranged this year’s annual clean-up after the April event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turnout ranged from the youngest to the oldest members of the community and, unfortunately, there was plenty of trash for everyone to pick up. Participants reported collecting enormous amounts of plastic and noted that this year no one can blame the tourists for the mess on the beaches.

On a positive note, one garbage picker observed that they didn’t find any straws, which indicates that the campaign to encourage bars and restaurants not to give out plastic straws is working. However, there was one major addition this year to the piles of garbage: discarded facemasks.

For the first time this year Ambassadors of the Environment and Cayman Eco used kayaks to get into the mangroves in North Sound and clean up there. The two teams also collected data for the Ocean Conservancy app to track the number and types of items they found among the mangroves.

Over 160 clean-up teams registered with the Chamber for the event on Saturday and many of them posted galleries of pictures of their efforts on social media under the hashtag, #caymanclean. Given how many people took part and how many bags were filled, when all the trash is weighed up tonnes of garbage will have been sent to the landfill.







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Comments (8)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    how many littering fines have the police issued/collected this year???

  2. Anonymous says:

    why do expats make up a disproportionate number of the beach clean-up people???
    why don’t more caymanians get involved?
    just asking…

    • Anonymous says:

      10.58 Because there are more of them living here than Caymanians. However Jamaicans make the most litter and don’t take part in any clean up.

  3. Caymanian ... sick of litter says:

    If “hard working” nasty & inconsiderate people would dispose of their lunch containers, weekend ” happy juice ” beverage bottles and the countless other items they seem to toss without care, properly instead of expecting others to pick after them ….there would be no need for prisoners or anyone else to do this community service .

  4. Anonymous says:

    Prisoners, people on probation, and people who break traffic laws should all do this community service all the time. Ridiculous.

    • Anonymous says:

      it’s your Earth too, it’s your home too. Why don’t you go outside and make a contribution, why should the general maintanence of our planet and our island be left to only those convicted?

      • Anonymous says:

        Because I already do my part. Why must we always pick up after law breakers? It’s called community service and it’s not just for expats trying to get points for PR.

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