As the Island Villas team gets ready to participate in the upcoming Clean Up Barbados 2017, we are taking a look back at our cleanup of Trents Hill, one of the many initiatives we have undertaken as part of the Going Green campaign. Let us know if you are interested in joining us for Clean Up Barbados!
Holetown, Barbados: Local real estate company, Island Villas, is urging Barbadians to champion the environmental cause and work collaboratively to clean up Barbados. This was following a successful cleanup of Trents Hill as part of the company’s ‘Going Green’ campaign.
“It really was very significant for us to do something, no matter how small, to make some sort of impact in the Holetown area, which is a tourism area,” said Richard Eames, Managing Director of Island Villas, “not only is the litter at the side of the road an eyesore, it is also damaging our marine life and adversely affecting the island’s most important source of income, the tourism industry. We are especially pleased to have been joined in our cleanup effort by Joanne Pooler from BICO, Ann Harding from the Future Centre Trust and a group of young volunteers.”
Covering approximately a 3km stretch of Trents Hill, the team collected over 400lbs of garbage including plastic bottles and styrofoam containers. Addressing the group about the dangers of plastic to marine life and how to live a plastic free lifestyle, Joanne Pooler from BICO urged everyone to consider that, “Plastic cannot be destroyed. Littering leads to blocked drains, increased flooding and can cause serious harm to fish, turtles and other marine life, eventually affecting us along the food chain. The South Coast sewerage project removes 150 lbs of plastic out of the sewerage system every day, which is a huge cost.”
Pooler also reminded the group of the recent death of an endangered green sea turtle which had ingested plastic, hair bands and human hair. She offered tips on reducing dependence on plastic like walking with your own utensils, refusing straws and carrying your own food containers and shopping bags. The group were also able to try out BICO’s Vegware line of products which are fully compostable and environmentally safe.
