The trash we throw reveals who we are, according to Emanuel Borja, Division of Environmental Quality environmental engineer who co-chairs this year’s Environmental Awareness Month.
DEQ has yet to find out how much garbage was gathered during the two-day cleanup, but Borja said some of the trash found on the roadside are “interesting.”
“We found a car bumper and two hubcaps. We were thinking we might find the rest of the car if we kept looking! Two members of our cleanup group even found a mini-fridge,” said Borja who was among the DEQ personnel who scoured both sides of Middle Road on the first day of the cleanup on Friday afternoon.
“Our trash tells a lot about our society,” he said.
Over 800 volunteers from 36 government agencies, business entities and community groups, participated in the cleanup and picked up a lot of juice boxes, aluminum cans, Styrofoam cups and plastic food wrappings.
“Most of our litter is composed of food-related packaging, and we, as an island community, can greatly reduce our volume of garbage by selecting products that use less packaging,” Borja said.
The cleanup, he added, highlighted this year’s Environmental Awareness Month them: “Invest in the real green: Our environment!”
“We got our hands dirty to help create a cleaner, greener CNMI,” he said.
Every year, Borja said, the turnout for the islandwide cleanup is always good, drawing support from the central government which encourages its employees to join.
Last year, over 1,300 volunteers signed up and they removed over 12,500 pounds of trash from roadsides and beaches.
Last weekend’s event was held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., on the first day and from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the second day.
The event was organized by Joe M. Kaipat, manager of DEQ’s safe drinking water branch. He organized the volunteers’ routes, provided gloves and trash bags and monitored the pick-up of the filled garbage bags throughout the island.
The cleanup, DEQ said, helps protect, preserve and beautify the island environment.
It is also a great opportunity for the whole community to work together and enrich the beauty of Saipan, DEQ added.
Some of the private sector volunteers this year are employees of McDonald’s Restaurant.
Fire, rescue and police officers of the Department of Public Safety as well as Corrections officers were also seen cleaning up Beach Road.
For their part, the staffers of the Department of Public Works’ roads and ground division led by Dennis Davis used heavy equipment to clear drainage pipes along Beach Road.
