MORE than 1000 people participated in the Pacific Recycling Foundation’s (PRF) roadside campaign held along the Kings Highway to mark World Environment Day and World Oceans Day yesterday.
Speaking to The Fiji Times yesterday, PRF founder Amitesh Deo said the event included participants from various sectors which included high school and primary school students from 13 schools in Nausori, members of the public, corporate organisations, development partners, and government agencies.
Mr Deo said this was the third year of the PRF roadside campaign where the initiative was established due to a lack of inclusive advocacy platforms for recycling, waste management, and ocean protection.
“We were seeing an absence around advocacy for recycling and waste management,” Mr Deo said.
“We have a lot of conferences, a lot of discussions around climate change, a lot of things being said in closed rooms but not enough space for people to just come and express their own feelings, opinion and all that. So, we thought to bring this out, where anybody can come out and talk about their concerns about the environment and ocean,” he said.
He emphasised that environmental issues affected everyone and should not be limited to select agencies or individuals and that individuals and corporations alike contributed to pollution due to limited waste disposal access and prioritising profits over sustainability.
“There’s an element of corporate greed in this country and in many parts of the world, we keep on putting profit before people and that continues to be the driving force one of the key barriers when we talk about sustainability.
“It’s all easy to policy it, to talk about it in conferences, but to actually implement, it is much, much harder.
“So, that is what this kind of movement building is about.
“It’s no point attending global conferences and highlighting problems if we are not holding ourselves accountable at home.”
