MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Canterbury Ambassador Group recently launched a waste separation competition in their community — their way of helping to reduce the number of plastic bottles flowing into the tourism-reliant city’s beaches.

President of the group Shamona Whyte told the Jamaica Observer that the idea for the competition came out of a brainstorming session, on January 6, 2021, to come up with ideas on environmentally impactful activities they could do.

“The ambassador group in Canterbury started because we want to move away from the negative stereotypes, while creating a more positive environment for the youth of our community. We got together as a group and came up with a recycling competition and everybody gravitated towards it,” said Whyte.

“We reached out to [our] Councillor [Richard] Vernon, shared our idea, and asked for information on how to approach it. He told us that he liked it and we have been working together from that point,” she told Observer West.

The aim of the recycling project, she said, is to encourage citizens of Canterbury to practise proper disposal of waste and waste separation, as they have acknowledged that “it begins with us [the residents]”.

“We are having so much fun saving our environment by recycling. We want to protect our environment, as well as the tourist industry and marine life, by stopping debris from going into the ocean,” Whyte said.

They have already collected some 7,200 plastic bottles and intend to continue until the competition ends on May 1, 2021. A partnership was established with the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) to facilitate collection of the bottles.

According to Whyte, the group is working towards raising funds needed to refurbish a community centre which will host social and developmental events for the youth of Canterbury. The centre will be used for training sessions.

“We want to…create a more socialising-friendly environment amongst the members and youth of this community,” she explained.

Speaking with Observer West, councillor for the Montego Bay South Division Richard Vernon commended members of the ambassador group for their efforts and acknowledged that it is timely.

“This is a great initiative, and they are very excited about it because they understand that removing the plastic from the waste will make our environment safer. These bottles are not just being collected from their homes but also from the gully. With the Harmony Beach Park being completed, we are looking at reducing the [amount] of plastic [waste] in the city,” said the councillor.

“We cannot have a beautiful park like Harmony Beach Park and when you look, you see bottles washing down; that won’t look good. Not only is it aesthetically displeasing, but it also endangers marine life with the chemicals that would have been discharged from the decomposition process, endangering the…ecosystem. The plastics can also trap our fish and turtle,” he added.

The impact of not practising proper waste separation, he said, is far-reaching.

“This has a serious devastating impact and we might not see it now, but we are going to see it 10 years from now, when we start experiencing food shortage. Fish will not come close anymore, and our fishermen are not properly equipped to go beyond a particular distance to catch them, so we are going to have less fish on our plates,” said the councillor.

The community of Canterbury, he explained, is one of several in his division that runs parallel to the North Gully, which empties directly into the sea.

“It is very important that this community is doing waste separation, and I am calling on all the necessary agencies and authorities that can assist us with this initiative to do so. It is a massive initiative; it seems simple, but the impact it can have on our future, in terms of saving the environment, is great,” stressed Vernon.