Oistins Waste Station gets facelift

ONCE an eyesore, a beautiful mural now wraps the Oistins Bay Garden Waste station, a visual representation of the beauty that can come out of waste and a reminder to keep the environment clean.

Yesterday Eco Rebel in partnership with ProSource launched a community beautification project in Oistins to bring awareness to the challenges associated with waste management and how it can be better managed in the community.

This beautification project is supported by the Sanitation Service Authority, the National Conservation Commission, and Bay Gardens Inc and included Oistins Bay Garden staff and vendors.

In time for Father’s Day, the initiative which was dubbed the Daddy and Daughter Waste Warriors event also included a group of fathers and daughters who worked together on the interactive mural painting and tree planting exercise.

Dominique Tudor, environmental ambassador for ProSource and founder of Eco Rebel, local Barbadian social enterprise, explained that Eco Rebel has been in the community over the years and has undertaken a number of projects with schools, helping people to change the way they think about our waste.

“So today, we're working with the Oistins vendors and daddies and daughters who came up to help us paint a mural. ProSource has renovated the waste station, this is the area where the Skips would be stored that the Sanitation Service Authority would come to clear. The gates were off and the Skips had to be placed outside. So what was happening was a lot of private entities were coming in and illegally dumping their waste.”

Tudor noted that the waste would subsequently overflow into the streets, which she recognised is a major tourist area. “We felt it necessary to have it here as our inaugural project so that we could start to build a vibrant community, you know, and we wanted to create a beautiful space to plant trees. And everybody that has been a part of this has really been excited. They had a fun time.”

She said with tree planting also planned for the area it is hoped that this project could be replicated in other parts of Barbados. Innotech Chairman Anthony DaSilva while commending the project said he sees the need for this concept to be replicated in public spaces across Barbados.”We can do more,” he said noting that there are many opportunities that can be developed and planned through engagement with the public for public spaces across the island.

Residents from the surrounding communities were included in the project including Maria Phillips and her daughters Milan and Ama who expressed gratitude for the project and encouraged Barbadians to keep the environment clean. The mural was drawn by artist Troy Burgess.