Team leader at Recycling Partners of Jamaica Petrona Chambers separating plastic bottles during a clean-up on Wednesday at the New Causeway Fishing Village in Portmore, St Catherine. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

JAMAICANS are being urged to properly containerise their garbage to avoid contaminating the environment, in particular bodies of water.

The plea was made during a clean-up project at New Causeway Fishing Village in Portmore, St Catherine, which was done in partnership with the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) and Recycling Partners of Jamaica (RPJ) on Wednesday.

“I want to appeal for the proper containerisation of garbage. The illicit dumping helps no one. When the garbage is thrown around it must find its way into the sea and damage the marine life and shoreline. It is what goes into the drains and what causes flooding,” said executive director at NSWMA Audley Gordon.

He said, too, that Jamaicans must make an effort to get proper garbage bags and recycling containers.

“We should provide bags so as to ensure that we keep the garbage together. We should keep the garbage together so that the wind does not carry it all over the place or whenever it rains,” he said.

General manager at RPJ Gairy Taylor said, while travelling near the fishing village with his team they “noticed a section was inundated with plastic bottles. We came down and spoke to the guys that are in charge of the area. They said that they had two cages [for plastic bottles] and when they are filled they dump them in another section which is not covered, so the bottles are blown away by breeze, which goes over into the mangroves”, he told the Jamaica Observer.

Taylor said about 40 super sacks of 200 pounds of plastic were collected.

He said further work will be done with the NSWMA to remove the remaining plastic bottles from the mangroves.