Pollution Solutions - A step beyond punishment and clean-ups

Recyclables collected by The Future Centre Trust and volunteers at Congor Bay Clean Up in 2013

Competitions and cooperative challenges in addition to clean-ups. Action research and experiments instead of one-time punishment. Financial incentive instead of volunteerism. Ideas for pollution reduction solutions.

Can we refrain from perpetuating the idea that there is always someone there to clean-up our garbage?

One of the circumstances which struck me on my return to the Caribbean was the heavy reliance on clean-ups as a solution for pollution. I understand that it is one of the easiest actions to take on so that businesses can check off their environmental initiative checklist.

Before I go further let me say this, clean-ups actually are NOT that easy, most of the time we tend to tell ourselves that we are done rather than actually "finished with" a clean -up. There is just so much garbage in the world, not just the Caribbean. I have seen so many of my friends do a clean up for the first time and they are completely shocked at how much garbage is hidden in our environment.

Close up of what we found at Congor Bay, St. John, Barbados

Both in the U.S. and Barbados, I have seen many people completely exhaust themselves trying to "finish" a clean-up, high-five themselves when they imagine that they are done, only to witness a plastic bag blow by.

What I mean by easy, is this - it may be an easy action to think of but it is time that we move on to other solutions. There are organizations which are doing amazing work rallying up the community to do clean ups and this work should definitely continue. However environmental movements throughout the world are evolving to support clean ups with more innovative solutions to address pollution at the source. We can do this in our own Caribbean way. We can design more creative pollution solutions.

For example there is a situation in Barbados at a secondary school, in which the details are still a bit foggy. While people try to figure out exactly what happened, in short, a young lady was asked to pick up one piece of garbage by the principal (I'm still not sure where that said garbage came from, but does it matter??). She refused and then was told to pick up garbage found throughout the school premises. I'm also not sure how dirty this garbage was and whether she was asked to pick it up with her bare hands. Now I'm paraphrasing - the student then told the principal that she did not come to school to pick up garbage. The issue was elevated by the parent to the Ministry of Education. I am not aware of any further details and really no further details are necessary to put forward some pollution solutions. Yes there is the issue of discipline and respect for elders. Yes there is the possibility that it was not garbage from something she used. Yes there is the sentiment that in days gone by school children did not litter as much. Yes there is the sentiment that a decade ago, the request to clean up the school premises was not something that students could refuse.

However I'm writing this post to consider this - if she had picked up the garbage, then what? We might have briefly addressed one issue but why was the garbage and resistance there in the first place.

This situation is showing us that we have an environmental literacy and public responsibility issue (at the least) in Barbados. Could this situation have occurred in another island? Perhaps, you tell me based on this definition for environmental literacy -

"The test of environmental literacy is the capacity of an individual to act successfully in daily life on a broad understanding of how people and societies relate to each other and to natural systems, and how they might do so sustainably." Do we have that capacity? Read more about defining environmental literacy here.

However we need to consider that the world is changing and the methods used to show how people/societies relate to each other and the environment is changing. If one action does not work or receives so much opposition maybe we should consider alternatives. At the end of the day if the problem we want to address is maintaining cleanliness in schools, we need to show students why this is not only important for the environment, but their health and our economy.

We need some alternate solutions other than reactive punishment and solutions. With the reactive punishment of cleaning up, students may still perceive that environmentally responsible behaviour could be avoided if you are obedient. Wait what? That sounds crazy.

We need to find ways to avoid the kind of conflict and misplaced values created by casting the responsibility of cleaning up in a negative light. We definitely do not want teachers/principals and anyone else to shy away from the issue of reducing litter and pollution because they can't be bothered with the public conflict repercussions. At the same time we don't want students thinking that only the "bad-behaved" students are responsible for cleaning up.

In the situation mentioned above, after the student opposed picking up the garbage some alternate ways to address both pollution and environmentally responsible behaviour could be assigning the student to - shadow custodial staff; complete a simple waste audit; create a research project on some topic related to the pollution; have her define what she DOES come to school for and have her work with other students to create a school competition which combines her definition of the purpose of school with finding ways to reduce pollution. Maybe a social media campaign could be designed? Students can create content for a campaign by writing on a piece of paper, no smart phones required.

Businesses could sponsor environmental monitoring programs at schools which provide labelled bins and prizes/financial incentives for student teams who complete certain pollution reduction challenges (on and off school premises). Recycling can be incorporated into these challenges, so that students can also understand that waste has value.

All of these pollution solutions require youth discipline and can be designed in a way to address public responsibility for the environment. If you are a teacher and you are thinking - "who wants to do that extra work?" Well we do - through the Better Caribbean Program. I'd be happy to read the research students are assigned to do, come up with more challenges for students and find corporate sponsorship for pollution reduction challenges.

This is a shameless plug for a pollution reduction cause which deserves more creative solutions.

Display from BMEX 2013 From Trash to Treasure by students from St. Bartholomew Primary, Barbados

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Why I am writing this? I am an environmental scientist by training and a solution artist in practice. By trade, my currency is facilitating active learning in anyway possible.....

We launch the Better Caribbean Program February 1, 2016.

~ Ariana Marshall Ph.D.