Cleaning up Barbados’ coasts

The Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN) Barbados’ initiative – the Barbados International Coastal Cleanup (BICC) has officially started.

This year marks a significant milestone for CYEN as September 2019 will be five years they have gone island wide and 25 years they have been executing cleanups in Barbados.

To date CYEN has collected 126,400 pieces of marine debris island wide. This year’s coastal cleanup entitled Barbados Free from Marine Debris will encourage waste segregation and the identification of alternatives to single use plastics among the debris. The target locations for the cleanup are below.

●      Saturday, September 7, 2019 – St. Lucy and St. Peter

●      Sunday, September 15, 2019 – St Joseph, St. Andrew, St John, and  St Philip

●      Saturday, September 21, 2019 (International Coastal Cleanup Day)- Christ Church and St Michael

●      Sunday, September 22, 2019- St Michael and St James

On Saturday September 7, four beaches in St Lucy – Little Bay, Waits Bay, River Bay and Moontown – were cleaned. Two beaches in St Peter – Six Men’s and Heywoods Beach – were also cleaned. The groups participating in the cleanup included Bajan Fusion, Benthams and Kairos Wesleyan Holiness Churches, and Dare to Care comprising 43 volunteers.

  The cleanup netted total waste of 608.35 pounds comprising some unusual items including diapers, car parts, sofa seats, clothes peg and balloons. Of particular concern was the large amounts of glass bottles, plastic bottles, bottle caps and food wrappers found.

The next cleanup will be conducted on September 15, 2019 at the following beaches with a start time of 6 a.m.:

●      Lakes Beach, St Andrew

●      Morgan Lewis, St Andrew

●      Walker’s, St Andrew

●      Bathsheba, St Joseph

●      Cattlewash, St Joseph

●      Bottom Bay, St Philip

●      Foul Bay, St Philip

●      Ginger Bay, St Philip

●      Beachy Head, St Philip

●      Skeete’s Bay, St Philip

●      Deborah Bay, St Philip

●      Martin’s Bay, St John

●      Consett Bay, St John

●      Bath Beach, St John

This is a significant undertaking on the part of CYEN and corporate Barbados, government agencies, schools, groups and concerned individuals are encouraged to get involved. This is a special occasion, and it is not too late to sign up online. Please see CYEN’s social media pages @cyen246 on Instagram or @BarbadosICC on Facebook for further details. Special thanks to all those who have donated their time and resources up to this point. The climax of the annual Barbados International Coastal Cleanup, the weekend of September 21 – 22, 2019 is fast approaching.

For more information, contact: Sade Deane (Event Coordinator) sade.deane@gmail.com/ 4264701; Justin Springer (Public Relations Officer) cyenbarbados@gmail.com or Kerrianne Jones (Marketing Manager) marketwisebb@hotmail.com / 833-1222