Green Up Grenada

Coastal Cleanup and Climate-Crisis Awareness Initiative

Green Up Grenada is a coastal cleanup and climate-crisis awareness initiative. It was just one of those ideas that came up during one of our regular Green Team meetings here at True Blue Bay Boutique Resort. We were sitting in our small conference room with eco online influencers Vivien and Aaron from the Dharma Trails, talking about what we could do next in the coming months. Jess, our social media extraordinaire, suggested a whole month of green activities in September. September 21st was named Coastal Cleanup Day- we decided to run with that theme.

In addition to planning coastal cleanups, we wanted to create a social media awareness campaign by spelling out our campaign name with found trash from the weekly cleanups. We entered into our Green September, as we started calling it, hopeful…and with a loose plan. All our social media profile pictures were changed to Green and posted our Green pledge. This was done to encourage people to join our weekly cleanups and create a sense of curiosity.

Soon enough dive shops joined in and offered to organize free underwater dive cleanups. Belmont Estate organised weekly Sunday cleanups in the north of the island for every weekly Saturday cleanup we assembled in the south and east of the island. Breakfast for our volunteers was sponsored by La Sagesse Resort, Umbrellas and Dodgy Dock. We really felt the support!

Thanks to the time, effort and dedication of every volunteer and local businesses, we can proudly say that this first phase of Green Up Grenada was a success. Over 3,000 lbs of garbage from our coastal and underwater cleanups were collected. That is as amazing as it is scary! All this trash was brought to our local landfill…where it will sit for many years releasing toxins into the atmosphere as it attempts to break down or is burned! Although we are happy to remove trash from the environment, the real problem still exists- the creation of plastic and/ or non-biodegradable waste in large quantities.

We noticed plenty of plastic bottles and caps, plastic cups, plastic straws, plastic cutlery and metal caps. There were also odd shoes, fishing ropes, cigarette buds, bits of plastic bags, broken plastic containers, plastic chairs and 1 odd plastic barrel. This was tangible evidence that more mindful choices could avoid much of the waste in our environment — choices made by both individual consumers and businesses alike. The power is quite literally in our hands. We recently published a blogpost about how travellers can reduce their waste -these tips apply quite easily to anyone who is not travelling too.

On Friday, September 27th, we went to Wall Street in Grand Anse for a Climate Strike that was happening all over the world. We were few, but the right people were together and were able to share conversations that will lead to further projects and action.

The first phase of this project culminated with a mini Green Up Grenada Summit on Saturday, September 28th held at our little waterfront restaurant, Dodgy Dock, with around 18 concerned citizens. We had people presenting about the potential of social media as a catalyst of social change, the responsibility of small business owners in creating less waste and turning plastic trash into art.

Do you want to join the Green Up Grenada movement? What will our next move be? Follow us on Instagram to see how it all unfolds.