Several days ago someone posted a whatsapp message saying that he or she could not find a garbage bin in West End.
The answer is that there are in fact plenty of them in the area, but the larger ones, for the general public, are covertly placed off the main road. This is to avoid an unsightly overflowing of garbage bins in Anguilla’s upmarket tourism belt.
This has been explained by the Elected Representative for the West End/Long Bay Constituency, the Hon. Cardigan Connor, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Sports, Youth Affairs and Culture. With his important responsibility for tourism, in particular, he has a passion for cleanliness – not just in his district, but throughout the entire island.
“You will find that the bigger community bins are down at the side roads. They are reserved for the people who live there to put their garbage in them,” Mr. Connor told The Anguillian. “Those persons who live along the main road have their own personal small bins, and there is garbage collection three times a week. For too long we have had the big green bins by the side of the main road – and at times they were spewing over left, right, and centre sending a negative image of our island which is a five-star destination.
“As I said, householders along the main road at West End have their own personal bins. There is no need for any of them to dump garbage anywhere else. Even if their garbage bins are full they can put the garbage in a plaster bag next to their garbage bins and the trucks will take it up. Once the garbage bins are emptied the householders would then take them back to their yards and put them out again the night before the day of collection.”
Mr. Connor, who took the opportunity to commend Mr. Hugo Rey’s garbage collection company for its excellent work, continued: “I go out each morning to pick up bottles and cans along the main road. As Government and Public Health officials, we have to start fining people who toss bottles, cans and food containers out of the windows of their vehicles as they drive by, or people who are walking with water bottles and dropping them at the sides of the road. You would not do that if you go to America or Europe. Why are we doing it at home? There should be a huge fine for that. Some of the bigger green bins are probably within 400 meters or within half a mile of each other, but it does not hurt to drive there and put the garbage in one of…
“Another matter is that the cardboard and plastics you see along the road come from a lot of trucks taking garbage to the Corito landfill. The garbage in these trucks should be covered with a tarpaulin.
“Further, trucks taking concrete to a construction site are washing out the residue at the sides of the road. The drivers should go back to their depots to do that. It leaves a negative and a dirty image of our island -and we have to stop it.”
Mr. Connor repeated an earlier call for persons at West End, and across the entire island, to set aside at least one hour to clean the roads in their neighbourhoods, thus contributing to a clean and safe environment. He stressed that such a commitment was not just for tourists, but in the interest of all Anguillians as well.
