Little Bay All Age Wins Clean School Competition

Little Bay All Age School, in Westmoreland, is the overall champion in the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) western Jamaica ‘Clean School Competition’.

The school emerged overall champions from a field of 41 competitors from the parishes of Trelawny, St. James, Hanover and Westmoreland, taking top honours for their solar water heater project, which landed them the coveted NSWMA trophy. The school also won the $40,000.00 cash award and other prizes.

Second place was awarded to Tower Hill Primary School, in St. James and third to Albert Town Primary, in Trelawny. They were presented with certificates of participation, trophies, prizes by Cool Runnings Water Park, Sun Set Beach Resort and Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ) Limited as well as cash awards of $30,000 and $20,000, respectively.

The ceremony, which was held at the Hollis Lynch Hall at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Montego Bay, on June 26, also saw parish awards being presented to top schools, Albert Town Primary, Tower Hill Primary, Sandy Bay Primary (Hanover) and Little Bay All Age. The competition lasted from October 2014 to June 2015.

Competing schools were required to create projects focusing on the 3Rs of solid waste maintenance: ‘Reduce, Re-use and Re-cycle’, under the theme, ‘Jamaica’s Beauty is Our Duty’.

Barracks Road Primary was adjudged the Most Improved School, while Little Bay All Age copped the Best Waste to Art award for their Christmas lights made from disposable cold cups. The award for Best Cultural Item went to Petersfield Primary for their Gerreh song and dance, ‘No dutty up de Place’.

The main objective of the competition was to instill proper waste disposal practices in students, and this was achieved by all participating schools, Customer Relations Officer for Western Parks and Markets Waste Management Limited, Sharnon Williams, said.

Ms. Williams commended participating schools for the “heights of creativity expressed in the form of art pieces made from trash.”

“The most rewarding part of this year’s Clean Schools Cometition was seeing the efforts that these students as well as their teachers placed into the competition. One could easily spot the environmental wardens in their pins and bibs, policing the schools during break. There were also environmental messages that served as constant reminders to practise proper waste disposal. There were also drums and bins designated for plastic bottles,” Ms Williams noted.

Meanwhile, Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar, Councillor Bertel Moore, challenged the NSWMA to place greater emphasis on solid waste separation for recycling.

From observations made while attending the conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in 2014, Mayor Moore said that more can be done locally to improve the management of solid waste.

He argued that for Jamaica’s beauty to be improved, everyone needs to play their part in keeping their area clean.

Also in attendance were Mayor of Falmouth, Councillor Garth Wilkinson; NSWMA Director of Operations, Percival Stewart; WPM Waste Management Limited, Regional Operations Manager, Lenroy James, and staff members.