Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 20, 2019 (SKNIS): In an effort to promote environmental sustainability, the Ministry of Tourism is encouraging participants of the 2019 National Best Village Competition to use recycled materials when beautifying their communities.
Senior Tourism Projects Officer, Novelette Morton, during her appearance on “Working for You” on May 15, stated that communities can recycle materials such as old tires and used bottles for the purpose of creating art.
“Most of these categories relate to preserving the environment,” she said. “So the Clean and Green Area [category] is very important, but we are also looking at a repurposing project for example using plastic bottles or plastic bags or old tires to create art and craft for the benefit of the community.”
Shaline Welcome, Community Tourism Officer, said that filling used tires with dirt and planting inside of them is one of the ways in which individuals can contribute to the recycling effort.
She added that, “[In] Going around the island, I have [seen] a lot of these tires being used [for] planting. They’ve painted them up, [which] gave such an attractive view when passing [by these] communities.”
Beyond the competition, recycling has already been introduced in schools through the Tourism Education Programme.
Ms. Welcome, who appeared in an earlier episode of “Working for You” on February 07, 2019, noted that through the programme, children made souvenirs from recycled items to promote sustainable tourism.
“They used either plastic, including plastic bottles, styrofoam, wood or rubber, but most emphasis was placed on plastic,” she said, noting that students made creative items such as earrings using recycled plastic bottles. “Coming up with such creative items such as these is preparing them for what is to come next.”
Some other categories in the National Best Village Competition include Best Kept Neighborhood, Best Home Garden –Vegetable and Ornamental, Best Village Shop, Best Sponsored Round-About and Best Village Grandparent.
The 2019 National Best Village Competition was launched on November 17 at Independence Square. Registration takes place during the entire month of May 2019. The final judging of the competition will take place in November 2019 during Tourism Awareness Month. Preliminary judging will take place in July and September.
