-says it’s a good anti-littering initiative, will encourage recycling

CALLING for changes in attitudes when it comes to littering and recycling, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Priya Manickchand has commended the implementation of the ‘Queen’s College Cycle Smart Project,’ mentioning its potential to become a national initiative.

Minister Manickchand related this during the launch of the environmental project created by QC Anushka Singh, which aims to reduce waste and promote recycling and the use of bins as opposed to littering around the city and at the school.

Queen’s College in recent times has been the pioneer of three similar projects under Recover Guyana’s SHOUT competition, a national youth empowerment and environmental advocacy competition that engaged secondary school students nationwide in critical thinking, public speaking and practical environmental action.

Other projects successfully executed include the implementation of water dispensers to encourage the reduction and reuse of plastic water bottles, the launch of a hydroponic kitchen garden, and now, the Cycle Smart Project.

In her speech, the minister commended those persons and organisations that have started to blaze the way forward in keeping the country clean.

Noting the increased “change of mindsets,” Minister Manickchand said, “I commend them. We didn’t see it two years ago. We didn’t see it last year. But that’s what vision and driving a vision does. People copy trends, and so if we could make trends that are good, that will change our bad habits, that will lead to the sustainability of our country and our life and our livelihoods, then imagine what Guyana could look like.”

The project she said, is an example of SHOUT standing almost alone in that time where initially government had only tri-monthly, bi-yearly cleanups, but didn’t have a sustained effort to ensure all citizens were becoming conscious of the backward, uncivilised and unconscionable decision to litter.

According to the minister, Anushka’s project is helping the QC campus, and all of its nearly 1,000 students to rethink what they want to do, and what they want their own homes, yards, communities, neighbourhoods, and schools to look like.

“Anushka is driving sustainable change, because for those 1,000 people, including the teachers, and some of you who do litter, including our cherished cleaners and your students, that’s 1,000 multiplied by 4, on average, in their homes; 4,000 people who are now becoming more conscious about whether I should [throw] out the banana skin through my window, drop the Dr Pepper can on the road, fling the KFC box through the bus window, or if I can look for colour-coded bins. Not only look for bins but look also for colour-coded bins to determine which one it is that is worthy of my trash.”

She said the school is a step ahead in implementing this. Stating that we are now speaking of recycling in a major way, the minister mentioned that they have received a few proposals from international and national companies about recycling.

She posited that the project at QC will not only bring about change in 4,000 to 5,000 of our people in this country, but it will bring a change that is shifting how we solve the separation of garbage and how we can see the usefulness of that separation. By doing this, we as a nation can move to being able to reuse, recycle, and keep our waste manageable.

She challenged the teen to not let this project stop at Queen’s College, as thousands of people will be influenced by it, paving the way for it to become a national initiative.

The minister assured the teen that government will support her efforts.