In­nis Fran­cis

Sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to grap­ple with per­sis­tent pest in­fes­ta­tions, of­ten fu­elled by the ac­cu­mu­la­tion of bulk waste in open spaces and along pub­lic streets. Against this back­drop, a group of pan play­ers and hik­ers joined forces to re­move more than 647 pounds of de­bris in a coastal clean-up and beau­ti­fi­ca­tion ex­er­cise at Par­adise Beach on April 19—three days ahead of Earth Day.

More than 50 pan play­ers from the Heartistry Foun­da­tion and Green Hearts Ini­tia­tive, along­side the Nurs­es Steel Or­ches­tra Trinidad and To­ba­go and South­side Hik­ers, vol­un­teered their time to clear waste from the shore­line. The ef­fort formed part of ac­tiv­i­ties mark­ing Earth Day and broad­er en­vi­ron­men­tal aware­ness cam­paigns.

Nurs­ing as­sis­tant and di­rec­tor of the Heartistry Foun­da­tion, Keyyea Greene, de­scribed the ini­tia­tive as part of an on­go­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal ed­u­ca­tion dri­ve tar­get­ing schools and com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad. She said the clean-up was al­so held in ob­ser­vance of World Health Day, Earth Day and Earth Month, un­der­scor­ing the link be­tween en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions and phys­i­cal and men­tal well-be­ing.

Greene not­ed that vol­un­teers worked col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly not on­ly to re­move waste but al­so to pro­mote re­spon­si­ble en­vi­ron­men­tal prac­tices. She added that she spear­heads the Let’s Do It World —World Clean Up Day Move­ment lo­cal­ly, serves as vice-pres­i­dent of the Nurs­es Steel Or­ches­tra, and is a hike leader with South­side Hik­ers.

“The Green Heart Ini­tia­tive was start­ed to spread en­vi­ron­men­tal aware­ness. Many peo­ple are not ful­ly ed­u­cat­ed about the harm caused by im­prop­er waste dis­pos­al, and we are tak­ing the ap­proach of en­gag­ing schools and host­ing com­mu­ni­ty events so in­di­vid­u­als take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their ac­tions and make pos­i­tive choic­es that im­pact the en­vi­ron­ment,” Greene said.

An en­vi­ron­men­tal ac­tivist for the past 14 years, Greene said she has part­nered with var­i­ous or­gan­i­sa­tions and hik­ing groups on sim­i­lar projects. The lat­est ef­fort, she ex­plained, in­cor­po­rates out­reach to schools and strate­gic lo­ca­tions, us­ing short ed­u­ca­tion­al videos to pro­mote the “three Rs”—re­duce, reuse and re­cy­cle.

“We chose Moru­ga be­cause of its his­to­ry, par­tic­u­lar­ly Par­adise Beach, which was de­signed to evoke a tra­di­tion­al Trinida­di­an beach ex­pe­ri­ence, com­plete with art­work and cul­tur­al el­e­ments. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, de­spite be­ing a space cre­at­ed for pub­lic en­joy­ment, it has been heav­i­ly lit­tered. If more groups come to­geth­er, much more can be achieved. It be­gins with ed­u­ca­tion,” she said.

Greene warned that im­prop­er waste dis­pos­al con­tin­ues to com­pro­mise ecosys­tems. She ex­plained that an­i­mals of­ten mis­take plas­tic for food or be­come en­tan­gled in de­bris, which can be fa­tal. Pol­lu­tion of ma­rine habi­tats al­so con­tributes to de­clin­ing fish stocks, af­fect­ing the liveli­hoods of fish­er­men through dam­aged nets, re­duced catch­es and low­er in­come.

She added that over time, plas­tics break down in­to mi­cro-par­ti­cles that en­ter the food chain, cre­at­ing a cas­cad­ing ef­fect that ul­ti­mate­ly im­pacts hu­man health.