Volunteers say beach trash home-grown
(CNS): Volunteers who joined in Plastic Free Cayman’s monthly beach clean-up this past weekend are warning about an increase in home-grown trash along the shoreline. While beach clean-ups usually involve clearing garbage that has washed up, this month’s clean-up at South Sound beach revealed much more home-generated litter on land here. The 33 volunteers picked up around 308lbs of rubbish.
Plastic Free Cayman noted that it is especially important to keep on top of the beach clean-ups because the turtle nesting season is in full swing and both mothers and babies need space.
“We absolutely want to make sure the mother turtle can access the beach freely to lay her clutches and give the best chance of survival to the young hatchlings,” a spokesperson for the local activist group said, urging people to be more responsible at the beach and to take garbage away.
The activist also asked the public to keep up the pressure on the government and to contact their MLAs to ask what they are doing to keep Cayman plastic-free and to urge the enforcement of the litter law.
Cayman’s beaches are under real threat from litter, both home-grown and washed up, as well as the sargassum seaweed influx. When Premier Alden McLaughlin delivered his strategic policy statement in the Legislative Assembly just under four months ago, he promised a war on litter.
McLaughlin said in the SPS that the cleanliness of Cayman had deteriorated in recent times and his government planned to do something about it. “We need to act now before littering of our streets, beaches and open spaces gets completely out of control,” he stated, as he announced an assault on the problem with “a major anti-litter campaign”.
He added, “We need to re-educate both locals and tourists as to what is expected from them; we need to provide better facilities for waste and, in time, for street recycling bins; and we need to look again at the litter laws and their enforcement. All three parts of this campaign are important and need to reinforce each other.”
There was no indication, however, when the campaign would begin.
A huge thank you 🙌 to the wonderful volunteers who came out this morning for the Monthly Beach Clean up! This month…
Posted by Plastic Free Cayman on Sunday, 4 August 2019
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Category: Land Habitat, Science & Nature
Anyone old enough to remember how clean Cayman was? Yards and open spaces were always clean. That was before the mass migration of “below minimum wage migrants”. Whenever I see someone drop or throw out garbage where it shouldn’t be I gently ask them to pick it because I do not where I live to look like a dump. Most time they comply! Be nice and try it- every little bit helps.
The Styrofoam is difficult to collect because it is so broken down into teeny tiny bits that is SO bad for sea birds and sea creatures to eat. This micro styro is vile. It is littered everywhere on our beaches. I’m sure everywhere in the world.
Simply increase the import duty on such items. Reduce it on more friendly products. Economics will force the swith to occur quite quickly.
Cayman islands are going downhill FAST
It’s the 3rd world mentality of Caymanians that’s responsible for most of the discarded trash. Go to any quite beach, say Barefoot at EE, and see the take out cartons, beer bottles and plastic that’s left behind. Look at the discarded tents and crap left over from the ‘Easter campers’. This isn’t the work of tourists, it’s the self entitled mentality of those who believe that others will pick up after them.
I disagree partially with some of your statement. Yes, Caymanians are partially to blame, but a lot of the litter comes from work-permit holders, especially those from other Caribbean or Central American countries. Usually, it’s men. These are labourers working construction, landscaping, etc. I’ve watched them do it. I do agree with the post-Easter camping problem, and yes, that unfortunately is mostly Caymanians.
You don’t need to (re)educate people about recycling if you make an effort to put recycling bins all over the island. What McLaughlin really is saying is that he wants a referendum on plastic/garbage pollution, while knowing people don’t know where to start without the government’s establishment of a proper waste schedule and system– something that our good friend Dart was supposed to assist with.
Bull***t, I work in an office that has recycling bins for cans and bottles right beside the regular trash. These bins are clearly marked and the morons that pass by still chuck everything in the regular garbage, they also chuck regular garbage in the recycling bins. I have to follow after them and put the stuff in the correct bins. You can’t fix brain dead, and will struggle to fix an I don’t care attitude.
What I am proposing is that there needs to be a more active initiative from the government side of things, to use recycling bins in the first place. And you can’t do that without having recycling bin locations to direct people to. As for your colleague, many countries have implemented fines for failure to recycle properly. But of course that is a fine that has to be implemented by the government. No ‘re-education’ is necessary, simply laws and fines put in place with an ongoing promotion by DoE. McLaughlin looks at this as a step-by-step process, but the fact is that all of these things can be done simultaneously without the need for public approval – it IS an environmental problem.