Long before the government announced an intention to ban the importation of styrofoam boxes in an attempt to address the chronic problem of garbage, a group of woman so fed-up of the clogged drains and trenches and litter around the city and its environs decided to do something about it and set up what they call Bag Bay Inc.
By the end of this month the company, which was registered last year and is managed by an all female board, hopes to be one of the major suppliers of cardboard boxes and paper bags. Bag Bay is managed by Nola Sinclair of Managing Paper Trail; Gillian Yow of Caribbean Stress Management; Lucia Desir-John of D&J Shipping; Rose Horatio, a recent retiree from Bank of Guyana, and Coreen Alleyne.
The company will operate from 302 Church Street out of Paper Trail, and according to Sinclair they all have one aim and that is to change the environment into one which is clean, unpolluted, and free from plastic bags and styrofoam boxes.
Describing the company as “my baby’ Sinclair said she decided to ask a few other women to join her and they were all willing. She said they have already identified a supplier in the US but they would also purchase cardboard boxes and paper bags locally.
“I am just fed up with the situation as it is with these plastics… it is really unnerving and I need to do something at my level even on what can be done to get rid of those things,” Sinclair told the Sunday Stabroek.
Sinclair, who worked at the Bank of Guyana for 29 years before starting her own company, said everyone is talking about the dangers of plastic bags and styrofoam boxes which are not biodegradable and are clogging the drains and trenches.
“I think the time is very opportune to launch [the company]. We want an environment that is free of empty boxes, empty drink bottles, old car parts, old furniture, old mattresses, old clothes…” Sinclair said, going on to say that this would also create a new face of society in general. However, she emphasized that there is need for training to encourage all Guyanese to dispose of their garbage in an efficient manner. Such training she said should be done “at the levels of nursery schools, public, private and secondary schools, ministries, municipal markets, businesses, hospitals, offices, sports organisations, churches and NGOs.” The women hope that the training would raise the level of environmental consciousness and that this will effect behavioural changes in society. “We must aim to bring about a sound and sustainable management of our environment,” Sinclair stated.
As a group, Sinclair said that they believe the laws governing waste disposal should be made common public knowledge and the penalties for such breaches should be enforced. Citizens must be made to respect the laws governing their land and if they cannot, then there should be no restrictions to the imposition of the penalty, she said.
And while they support the Pick It Up campaign, Sinclair said citizens should know in the first place how to properly dispose of their garbage. “The Pick It Up campaign we endorse, but why must we go picking up people’s rubbish; people have to learn you don’t dispose of rubbish like that and you have to start from early…” she pointed out.
Sinclair called on the entrepreneurs in the manufacturing sector, one of whom she said could manufacture garbage bins in various sizes which could be placed in all areas, and citizens encouraged to use them.
“All must be involved in this master plan for the new face of our dear country; don’t allow it to slide further as change is possible,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sinclair said while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which she said has been given powers to protect the environment, has been doing a lot of work relative to the promotion of national environmental awareness and education, they need to do more in sensitizing the public.
And not being disposed to leave everything to the authorities, the group of women came up with several recommendations which include making the management of solid waste disposal part of home training and teaching it in schools from the nursery level. In offices each person should take responsibility for the tidy upkeep of their own area of operation and they should be apprised accordingly when supervisors complete their performance appraisal forms.
Also suggested was a general meeting for representatives of agencies responsible for policy-making to discuss and plan the modus operandi for collection, categorizing and disposal of the garbage.
Sinclair said they are willing to lead from the front and they hope that eventually there would be no complaints about garbage in the city, but for this to happen all must do their part.
