Create incentives and the country will be cleaned up overnight

Jul 04, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Before you “pick it up”, somebody had to have “thrown it down.” It would therefore be much better if instead of having a campaign urging citizens to pick up litter, for there to be a campaign against disposing of your garbage in the first place.
Unfortunately, asking Guyanese not to litter is like throwing water on the back of a duck. It simply does not work. Guyana has had many anti-littering campaigns, none of which have been successful. The last such campaign was “the war on bad manners”.
This was well-intentioned and aimed at encouraging socially acceptable conduct in public, including not littering or urination in public places.
The results have not been encouraging. Even during the height of the “war on bad manners” campaign, persons could be seen littering freely. And when it comes to urination in public, this is now a widespread practice. At almost any location you will find vehicles pulling aside, drivers opening their car doors, pulling down their zippers and…you know the rest.
The city council of Georgetown tried to prosecute persons found littering, but just like traffic tickets, the fines are so prohibitive that they provide more incentives for corruption than for prosecution.
Instead of trying to punish persons for littering, we should be rewarding them. We have a good example to follow. The scrap metal trade effectively cleaned up all the villages in the country. It cleaned them of up dumped derelict vehicles and scrap metals.
The secret of this success was the reward that was given to scrap metal scavengers. They would go around the country and pick up disposed items of scrap metal and then sell it to the exporters. They earned money for this clean-up and they did a good job, except that because certain types of scrap metals were fetching a lucrative price on the world market, metal bandits emerged.
The telephone company lost billions because of the high price that was being paid for copper. This encouraged the unscrupulous, lured by the high price being paid for copper, to vandalize the telephone lines. Persons also began to lose their personal property such as parts of their gates and fences as the scavengers capitalized on the fortunes of the scrap metal industry.
As such, the government was forced to discontinue on more than one occasion the trade in scrap metal because of the unscrupulous actions of individuals. However, while the trade was open, millions of tons of unwanted scrap metal were being exported. The country has earned millions in foreign exchange and the environment was cleaned up.
The lessons from that process should be applied to the present clean-up drive that is being led by the diplomatic community and which is being supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Instead of asking communities and citizens to “pick it up”- a strategy that is going to fail in the long run because of the unrestrained littering that takes place in the country – it would be much better if those who are behind this clean-up can offer financial rewards for the collection of litter.
The first thing to do would be to pay persons for collecting plastic bottles. These bottles can be collected and then sent to a local recycling facility. The problem of course is that there is no such facility, but while the government is seeking an investor for such a plant, plastic bottles can be stockpiled.
The only reason why Guyana does not have a plastic shredder and recycling plant is because much of the plastic disposed of is collected and exported. But once a plant is established, all the exported plastic and those which litter our foreshores and canals, can be collected by the same scrap metal scavengers and sold to the recycling plant.
If this is done and if the scavengers are paid a fair wage and not asked to transport the litter far distances, then the whole country can be free of dumped plastic bottles within six months. As an extra incentive, the collectors can be asked to collect bottles and disposed Styrofoam boxes.
In this way, the country would be killing three birds with one stone – glass bottles, Styrofoam boxes and plastic. Create the incentives and the country will be cleaned up overnight.

Latest News

Create incentives and the country will be cleaned up overnight

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 13th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Ramnath sets tone for WI ahead of opener

Seales dominates but Shakeel, Rizwan lead...

Youngsters impress as final day draws near

BCB/Dr. Amarnauth Dukhi U15 Inter Club...

Windies captain Brathwaite stresses bravery,...

In-form Savory dazzles on second day with classy...

Features/Columnists

Kazakhstan showed that renegotiation is possible

Clarifying misconceptions about the Panama Canal

What objections to renegotiation are all about

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Create incentives and the country will be cleaned up overnight

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 13th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]