December 9th, 2016 -- Students from some of the island’s high and primary schools are being encouraged to display more care when disposing garbage and refuse to litter. Some vendors in the area of the Beach Allen Primary School and the Basseterre High School have spoken about students littering the roadway and pasture next to the schools. They say they have to clean the area where they sell every day when they arrive in the mornings because students throw garbage indiscriminately on the ground. “Today is actually a good day because normally you would come and every second (the students) would drop something on the (ground).
Over here does really look very tacky and it really bothers us as vendors who selling food because it really brings a lot of flies...I have to clean up in the mornings when I come,” she said. “As you could see I have my bag there with the garbage and as that (is filled) I put another one up,” she added. This vendor has suggested placing more garbage bins and installing litter wardens to help deter rampant littering. “I think just as how you have traffic wardens…I think they should have somebody around to make sure they throw their garbage where it supposed to go,” the vendor suggested.
Another vendor decried the seemingly nonchalance of the students towards littering. “The children kick bottles….Kick them in the road…and then they just leave them,” he said. Another vendor said she tends to clean up the area before she starts selling which is usually littered with paper, plastic bottles and other garbage allegedly left their by the children. She is not sure however, if placing more bins in the area is the answer. “Even though they have the garbage bin they might still throw their garbage on the ground,” the vendor said.
Mr. Wilmon McCall, Operations Supervisor at the Solid Waste Management Corporation (SWMC) noted that there are enough garbage bins in the area but the culture of students as it pertains to littering must change. “It is something that is happening at almost every school. It seems like something that has been ingrained in these youths. It’s something that has become chronic,” he said. He spoke of another area where students in Cayon litter the area close to a bus stop in Cabbage Tree Housing.
He explained that when students move from primary school to high school, there seems to be a change in their attitude on littering. “In the primary school there’s a lot better management of that litter....but in the high school there is a sense of callousness,” he said.
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