As Jamaica continues to grapple with poor garbage disposal, young creatives from schools across the Corporate Area on Friday proudly displayed innovative pieces made from discarded solid waste.

The students were participants in the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) subsidiary MPM School Waste to Art Competition.

They gathered at the national headquarters of the Girl Guides Association of Jamaica to celebrate Solid Waste Day and showcase their creations. George Headley Primary School was declared the winner despite strong entries from students of Duhaney Park, Seaview Gardens, and St Patrick’s primary schools.

From left: Students Matthew Smith, Dinaro Rousseau and Rachel Purey of Seaview Gardens Primary School observes as Leslie James, CEO and managing director of Gates Marketspace, explains the recycled material he used to create a box truck. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

After being declared the winner, teacher and art club coordinator at George Headley Primary School Suzan Hart-Beharie told the Jamaica Observer that despite having little time to prepare their entries the students were excited to participate.

“They worked hard at the pieces despite the challenges, because we had a few hiccups. It’s myself and eight other teachers. We heard about the competition basically about two or three weeks before it started, so we only had less than a month to get everything together. Students have exams, students live different places, so we didn’t have much time to really put in the creative juice as we wanted to, because at George Headley we normally go all out,” said Hart-Beharie as she noted that this was the school’s first entry into the competition.

“We divided ourselves into teams and we worked at each piece. We had an irrigation system for the functional aspect of it. We had a centre table for the household part of it. We had a lovely suit that was a summer suit — a dress, headpiece, slippers, bag, and we had our drama piece,” Beharie explained.

Taraji Brown of George Headley Primary models the winning outfit made from recycled material at the MPM Waste to Art Competition on Friday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Acknowledging that funding the initiative may be costly, Beharie maintained that exposing students to the possibilities of what repurposing garbage can produce should be encouraged.

“It’s a good initiative, and it’s one that they must continue. I believe, for me, for our school, and I know the other schools that participated, it opened their eyes to the things that we can use waste materials to do. The need for us to repurpose, reuse, recycle. Even with Hurricane Melissa, we saw the damage that was done because of drain blockages, the rubbish on the road and stuff like that,” said Hart-Beharie.

“They need to go into the schools and educate more persons on it so that the teachers or the other people who are part of the school community can understand the need for us to reuse and recycle our waste. This is something that needs to be thrown out to the wider country. Something that more persons need to be made aware of, because not everybody knows that garbage can make art,” she added.

Students and teachers from George Headley Primary School celebrate their first place in the MPM School Waste to Art Competition. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Meanwhile, executive director at the NSWMA Audley Gordon told the Observer that the initiative to push proper garbage disposal will continue across the country.

“You will see all these kind of activities, road marches, you will see them in schools giving talks, you will [see] community activities, you will see engagement with youth group, citizens group, we are talking to everybody, because the partnership to clean Jamaica will leave no one behind,” Gordon said.

“We will keep the partnership going, because to clean Jamaica is a partnership. No agency by itself, no executive director, CEO, cannot by themselves do this job. It will come down to a partnership. It will come down to an understanding of our roles individually and how we play that role, how effectively we play that role,” he added.