fp Turks and Caicos

“Keep our island litter free” was the message Turks and Caicos Environmental Management shared with students across the TCI.

As they gear up for a nationwide waste management system, TCEM is reaching out to students to educate them about littering.

Representatives from TCEM visited 46 schools across the TCI over the past two weeks, getting an important message across about taking care of our environment.

Under the theme “The Environment and You,” the group gave kids a hands-on chance to see what they can do to help keep the islands clean.

“Garbage harms our environment,” Clover Delancy tells the students. Explaining how littering is harmful to the environment, including marine life, Dover showed the students how they could do their part to protect the world around them for themselves and future generations.

“Our goal in 10 years is for the TCI to be the cleanest country in the Caribbean,” she said. “But to make that happen, we all have to do our part.”

TCEM is about to embark on the installation of a nationwide waste management system that will take the country decades ahead in terms of how it deals with garbage.

“Imagine you throw your garbage in your yard for 10 years, what do you think will happen,” she asked the children. It is this example that helped the children to realise what the current dump sites are doing to the environment.

“Burning garbage make us sick and ruins the ozone layer,” she explained. “Methane gas given off by burning garbage is the number one cause of global warning.”

She explained the difference each person can make by putting their garbage in the right places as well as teaching them about sustainability. “Reduce, reuse, recycle,” she said is a perfect way each person can do their part to help. Giving an example of how students can reuse water bottles to reduce the amount of plastic waste going into the garbage.

The message was well received at the Champions for Christ International School of Excellence. Principal Alleveia Butterfield-Chan Jon Chu was pleased at the response from the children and encouraged them to take what they had learned home and practice the valuable lessons.

“All of us will commit as individuals and collectively to preserve our heritage by keeping Turks and Caicos Beautiful by Nature,” she said.

The children left with a valuable message to carry on to their friends, families and neighbours:

“Beautiful by nature, land and see. Let’s keep our islands litter free.”