What a delight to be able to spend 2 months in Treasure Beach this winter! I've been coming to TB for about 10 years. I love everything about the area except one thing: the litter. It's everywhere. On the roads. On the beach. On the ground just feet away from a trash bin. Each year, my husband and I bring a package of large trash bags and clean up the area where we're staying. I watch people throw things out the windows of their cars as they drive down the road, or drop plastic bottles on the beach as they walk along. It breaks my heart that such a beautiful environment is so disrespected in this way.

I know that the Citizen's Alert group has deposited many trash receptacles throughout the area and many of them are well-used. This is wonderful. I also applaud the annual community organized beach clean-ups that occur. However, until the mentality changes, and people see littering for the disrespectful act that it is - to the birds and sea life that mistake plastic for food, to the planet, to the residents and to visitors, I fear I will continue to spend my holidays picking up what others have dropped.

Here are a couple of interesting and shocking videos about plastic waste. While they focus on the Pacific Ocean, the same issues (though on a smaller scale) exist in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qPtgM_vPb0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKAABayRuXs

A lot of this could be from the Tsunamis just saying.

Hello California Girl,

I am planning a 2 month budget visit to Great Bay Treasure Beach this summer. Hopefully half my time will be spent volunteering through VIJON.
Although I have travelled to Ja for many years my stays have been mainly in Trelawny, with short periods in Kingston and Ochi. Treasure Beach is completely unknown to me, any advice on long stays would be very much appreciated.
regards
Jo

From Yard,
I wish that the tsunamis could be blamed for all the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. While it may have contributed to some of it, it was discovered in the 1980s and just keeps getting worse. Many California cities are banning plastic grocery bags and most have banned styrofoam. Still, the problem grows worse. We have to stop using plastics when possible and dispose of them properly when we we use them.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. It's a mantra we should all follow.

Hi Jo,
This is our first two-month visit here. We usually stay for only one week. It's been fabulous! Unfortunately, the place we've been staying will no longer accept long-term bookings. I've heard that both Shakespeare Cottage and Two Seasons will. They both have a link on this site. I know there others in town as we've been talking to folks and hearing about them. I don't feel comfortable naming individuals (rather than guest houses) who may be interested in renting without their permission. I'd suggest you start a new thread on TB Runnin' and ask.

Treasure Beach is a wonderful community. I know you'll love your time here and am sure you'll find a great place to stay.

Best of luck to you!

Apologies California Girl,
I wasn't very clear in my post. I have already found a place to stay I was thinking more along the lines of what to pack. I have already started a list knives, chopping board, touch light, candles pillows that type of thing. 2 months is a long time to be away from home.I figure I dont need more than I case for clothes so the other will be for home type things that I can just leave behind.
Thanks for the response
Jo

The trash from the Japanese tsunami is going toward the west coast of the United States. Some has already been spotted off the coast of California. Look at a word map and the currents, and you will see Japan is not responsible for the trash off the coast of Jamaica. The people of Jamaica need to take responsibility for their own mess.

I LOVE Jamaica, and have been visiting for over 20 years, and YES California Girl is correct about how Jamaicans in general just tosh their trash anywhere. It happens all over the island. I do not think there is a general attitude about NOT LITTERING in Jamaica.
{edited by TBNet}
ONE LOVE !!
Mike

To Jo, Please send me your email (click on my name for a link) and I will give you the low down on what's worked for me this year and what I plan to do for my stay next year. Otherwise, we'll go back and forth through TB.net (not that it's a bad thing, I'd just like to streamline).

You will undoubtedly LOVE your time here.

To Jamaican Trash:
I had a conversation with my (70+year old) mom a few days ago and she reminded me that when she, and I, was a kid (1940s-1960s), we, in the States, were also oblivious to the litter problem. I remember the ad from my youth with the Native American in a canoe with a tear rolling down his cheek as he paddled through a littered river (before we knew that industrial and corporate agricultural polution was distroying the actual waterways). It took LOTS of education for us to change our ways. The hope of the future lies with the children - the next generation. We, as the elders, should help show the way. If you, and any others reading this, pick up trash, tell locals why, and encourage children to protect their piece of the earth, we will all benefit from a more pristine Treasure Beach, if not Jamaica as a whole.

I challenge ALL visitors to give back to this beautiful area that gives us such pleasure. When you are walking on the beach or roadway, take the 5 seconds necessary to pick up trash along your way. Citizens Alert has done a great job of providing trash recepticals, present your offerings to them! Over time, as children learn the value of not littering (as we and our parents learned in the US, Canada and the UK), the island will be more pristine. Until then, anyone who knows, should ACT!

Irie blessings,
California Girl

Good point California Girl.
However, the fact is that it was AMERICANS that started to clean up their OWN country.
Don't you think that is should start with JAMAICANS cleaning up after themselves ? Why should any tourists feel that they should clean up after Jamaicans ? Yes tourists can help, but it should be the Jamaicans responsibility !
ONE LOVE !!
Mike

Yes, MikeyMike, I agree that it is Jamaicans who hold the primary responsibility to create and maintain a clean environment. However, as it doesn't appear to be a cultural norm to not litter, and, as cultural norms change over time with information and encouragement, and generally not from finger-pointing, I would suggest that those of us who know the way should show the way.

I do wish that more locals felt a responsibility to keep their beautiful beaches and roads free of litter (though many DO as I see trash bins full all over town). However, I don't feel like it's my place to come to someone else's home and tell them what to do. I am a tourist here and feel I can comfortably challenge others like me - visitors who receive great benefits from this lovely place - to give back to the community by doing what they know is right, pick up trash when they see it rather than walk right past it. The more people do this AND tell locals why they're doing it, the greater the likelihood of creating a value for a litter-free environment over time.

I've said all I need to say about this for now. Thanks to those who've participated in the discussion.

I think Jamaica has come a long way from the old days. The fact that the garbage truck comes to take what is collected away makes cleaning up possible. Used to have to just throw it out back and let the wind take it from there. I think that a great deal of the garbage on our TB beaches actually is thrown off of passing ships or washes out of kingston gullies. I do realize that there is a ways to go still but I'd like to express my appreciation for how far we've come.

The trash bins are often overflowing. The garbage trucks don't come often enough. I see people looking for a place to toss their litter and nothing empty can be found that's convenient. The expectation that someone might carry their trash for hundreds of yards is not realistic.

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

~Walt Disney

Perhaps it is my Girl Scout upbringing, which taught to leave the camp site better than you found it, but I make an effort to help clean up the roadside and beach where I stay in Jamaica.

Unfortunately in most places there are not enough receptables or ways to dispose of trash and it is hard even if you try to be conscious of it. (For example, trash cans often have no lids, so a good wind blows the trash out of the can.)

There are a couple of local guys who I have paid some $J's to help me over the years. It is almost automatic that when I arrive they start cleaning up the beach across the street and the surrounding roadways. I wish they'd do it anyway, but I don't mind paying them to do a little work.

When I first started visiting Jamaica in the early eighties, there was very little plastic. All plastic bags were used over and over. Even once it tore, it was use to wrap small items. Drinks were all in returnable bottles. Now, plastic is everywhere and Jamaica has not kept up in this new plastic disposable world.

Yes, Jamaicans need to be more conscious and there needs to be effective trash disposal systems, but in the meantime, I don't mind and, in fact, enjoy giving a hand.