College of The Bahamas Student Leaders Recycle on Eleuthera

COB leadership volunteer group, Advisors, One Eleuthera staff members and SEEP volunteers.

Eleuthera Bahamas – Sixty two (62) student leaders and advisors from The College of The Bahamas (COB) recently visited South Eleuthera Emergency Partners (SEEP) in Tarpum Bay to participate in a service project at the organization’s Recycling Depot.

“The group is the largest we’ve had so far”, said Shapreka Clarke, Project Manager for the depot.”

“Various schools and community groups such as Tarpum Bay Primary School and Deep Creek Middle and Preston Albury High Schools’ Eco Clubs have participated in the cleaning and sorting of materials”, she continued.

The depot is the only recycling initiative of its kind in South Eleuthera. It has been in operation for a little over a year, but faced some struggles in its setup and organization. This is where One Eleuthera Foundation (OEF) stepped in to assist SEEP in building its capacity and better manage the depot. Through OEF’s successful grant application to Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Program (SGP) Bahamas, SEEP’s Recycling Depot is becoming more and more functional and efficient. This is a clear example of OEF’s mission and that is to provide organizations with the resources they need to work.

The goal of the program is to minimize the impact of solid waste on the environment through the reduction of plastics, aluminum cans and glass bottles in landfills in South Eleuthera. Since the grant became effective, One Eleuthera Foundation staff, Rotaract Club of Eleuthera and SEEP volunteers have worked to furnish the depot with proper signage, storage bins and safety equipment, are educating the public through events, school presentations, field trips and volunteer opportunities, and preparing recyclables for shipment.
The program’s team challenges the general public to bring their plastics (numbers 1, 2 and 5 only), glass bottles and jars, and cans to the Recycling Depot in Tarpum Bay. The more the depot collects the less garbage there is in landfills in South Eleuthera and the cleaner its communities.

“We also encourage individuals, school students and other groups to sign up to volunteer in cleaning, sorting and preparing recyclable’s for shipment”, said Devanna McCartney, volunteer coordinator for the depot.

“It takes all of us to keep our communities clean, green and pristine”, said Ms Clarke.

For more information on this and other One Eleuthera and partner projects and events, visit www.oneeleuthera.org.