The Earth: Our Trash Can
On April 22, 2022, the world observed Earth Day. For those who may not be aware it’s a day used to remind us that the Earth and its ecosystem provides us with life and sustenance.
It seems that we take the Earth on which we exist for granted and forget the importance of caring for the Earth which provides us with much needed resources.
In other countries, to celebrate Earth Day, several clean up campaigns are launched; trees are planted and the need for recycling is promoted through educational campaigns.
What do we do in Trinidad to commemorate this day? Well, on April 22, on my way home from work I drove pass a house in my community which I always slow down to admire. This particular lady uses bougainvillea plants to mark her boundary lines.
The plants are huge and full and when in bloom is breath-taking, so much so, that persons use her yard for photoshoots.
She keeps her outer and inner areas clean whether by personal preference or to accommodate the photographers. On this particular day I was stuck behind a car that was driving very slowly and refusing to make way to overtake. The driver slowed even more (if possible) and then out the window came the bottle and a crumbled brown bag which landed directly in the lady’s bougainvillea plants.
I was annoyed on her behalf.
For a fleeting moment I wondered whether we still had litter wardens in Trinidad, but, even that never deterred people from throwing things out their car window, 🟪🟪🟪 forbid, they actually keep the trash in their vehicle until they found a bin or got home.
Interestingly, over the weekend I saw that more than 1,200 pounds of garbage was picked up from the side of the Audrey Jeffers Highway by a group of volunteers who no doubt would have arranged the campaign to observe Earth Day.
I am amazed by the amount of trash, but not surprised. It really is quite common in Trinidad to see people casually throwing trash out their windows as the side of the road is a common dumping ground.
It appears that even our legislators many years ago were well aware of our littering problem which resulted in the Litter Act Chapter 30:52 which sets out the various descriptions of littering and the necessary fines and charges. But as we have long discovered, lack of legislation is not necessarily our problem in sweet T&T it is more the failure to implement and enforce.
In my practice I defended a litter charge only once in my several years of admittance to the bar. The persons in question had dumped tree trimmings, grass and branches on the side of the M2 Ring Road and felt that it was degradable material so it was not littering.
According to the Act even logs, tree trimmings and saw dust is defined as litter.
The persons charged in that case had no real defence, yet, they were able to get off without a charge or fine simply because the police officer who issued the charge was on vacation leave and failed to attend the trial.
The Court decision was simple— Dismissed for failure of prosecution evidence. They didn’t get off the charge because I presented a fantastic argument or because they were innocent, no, it was simply because the matter was too petty for the police to be bothered with attending court.
The rainy reason will soon be upon us, and as is now customary, there will be several floods reported in the newspaper and tears from those affected. The flood waters will eventually reside and what will remain is the pounds of trash that was not on the side of the road but ended up in our waterways clogging and blocking the free flow of water.
Even then, we will turn a blind eye and continue throwing the bottles, bags and wrappers out of our car window.
Pursuant to Section 2 (6) of the Litter Act a person who is guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction in the case of an individual to a fine of $4,000 or to imprisonment for six months or in the case of a body corporate to a fine of $8,000.
This alone is enough to convince a person to stop littering, if only we can have this enforced by our police officers who are suppose to be on patrol. A further consideration may also be empowering our Court to order community service for persons found liable under this Act, and the service being to have them assist in cleaning the trash off the side of the roads.
Earth Day should not be the only time we are motivated to have clean up campaigns. Every day that we depend on and use the resources of this earth is Earth Day. It is time we take better care of the earth that sustains us.
Pavitra Ramharack is Head of Chambers at Pavitra Ramharack Attorneys at Law and can be reached at ramharack_pavitra@outlook.com