Paul: We are responsible for the environment

As a part of this society, we are responsible for the way the environment is kept.

This comment came from James Paul, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society. In a recent interview with The Barbados Advocate, Paul revealed that they were trying to encourage persons to be more responsible in terms of the way they deal with the environment. He believed that if they could make persons more aware of their responsibility to the environment, especially in terms of responsible garbage disposal, then the environment would certainly benefit.

Regrettably, he divulged that he found that generally, persons tended to fool themselves into thinking that when we talk about garbage disposal and a clean environment that this is the job of someone else, however, “It is the man in the mirror that needs to be responsible for this whole thing.”

He mentioned that there needed to be greater support on the part of the community as this issue affects us in a great number of ways and expressed that the issue of proper garbage disposal practices is not usually linked back to sustainable development but the fact of the matter is that proper garbage disposal helps create a cleaner and better environment for us all. He added that he was disappointed to hear persons say they would rather dump their garbage elsewhere than pay a tipping fee.

Paul said that he did not understand how citizens of a country can travel to another country and respect the country’s garbage disposal rules but can not respect the rules of their own country. Understandably, he said that those other countries have gone further in making sure that their citizens fall in line and said that he wished for the same thing to happen in Barbados.

He said that for that to happen, the citizens of Barbados need to understand the importance behind disposing of their garbage in a suitable manner so that our island can continue to thrive.

“If we are going to be serious about the whole question of creating a better society for the future, then we need to critically discuss better garbage disposal options,” he said.