CHANGING CONCEPTS OF WASTE -- THE WAY TO WORKABLE SOLUTIONS

JANICE CUMBERBATCH

(Not to be quoted without permission of the author)

ose of t w e r :

This paper is based on a larger study which focused attention on the relationship between social change and solid waste problems.' The information presented in both documents comes from secondary literature sources and the qualitative analysis of unstructured interviews with persons in the waste management, environmental and education fields in Barbados. The purpose here is to explore the ways in which social changes influence solid waste problems, and to propose that a change in the concept of waste through the activities associated with waste diversion from landf il I c ; - in"1lnnce the necessary social changes thereby contributing to the solution of solid waste problems.

Understanding solid waste management and other environmelital problems should be one of the challenges addressed by social scientists. Up until recently however, the topic had been solely the preserve of the "hard" sciences such as chemistry, hydrology, meteorology, and topography. While the primarily engineering methods of solid waste disposal, e.g., incineration and landfilling, have had some measure of success, the high costs of the infrastructural development needed to support incineration as well as the leachate, dust and odour problems arising from landfilling, indicates that these methods have limitations in terms of providing definitive solutions.

Indeed the so-called "hard" sciences alone will not solve these environmental problems since many of them, like pollution, are caused by people. It is therefore at least as much a problem for sociology, political science, and economics with their knowledge of attitudes, government, and markets.

To this end, this paper utilises both a sociological and an environmental approach to the examination of solid waste management problems. It stems from the fact that the authorities across the globe are finding it increasingly difficult to dispose of the quantity and composition of garbage which is being produced by their populations. The paper focuses on Barbados, proposing that an examination of the ways in which social changes influence solid waste problems in the island, can help to provide the basis for establishing approaches for the management of such social changes

'The study in question is entitled "Social Change and Solid Waste," and it constituted the author's major paper submitted to the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Toronto, in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master in Environmental Studies, April 1992.

thereby having a beneficial effect on.the solid waste problems.

e of the P a m

The paper is divided into three sections. In section one, social change and solid waste are defined, and the interconnections between them are identified.

In the ~ o c o n d section, two of the solid waste problems in Barbados are outlined, and the social changes which contributed to their existence are discussed. At the same time, changing concepts of waste through waste diversion is introduced as a means of influencing these social changes thereby alleviating these problems.

Finally, in section three, there is an exploration of some of the strategies which can bring about the social changes required to support waste diversion and a concept of waste which decreases waste by emphasising the resource potential in materials.

SECTION 1: SOCUL CHANGE AND SOLID WASll% PROBLEMS

As stated, the paper focuses on social change, and therefore it is necessary to explain the way in which this term is defined in the paper. The explanation given here will be brief. However, for a more indepth discussion, reference can be made to the larger study mentioned earlier, where there is a substantial section which discusses social systems and social change.

The role of this section therefore, is to explain how social systems and social changes are defined within this perspective, to explore the concept of waste and to discuss the connection between social change and solid waste.

Social chanae - definition:

Any analysis of society, any dream of designing a better world, any attempt to solve social problems, and any program to initiate, accelerate, direct, or reduce social change, no matter how idealistic or humanitarian its impetus, must begin with general ideas about the nature of man and social systems, their amenability to change, and those agencies, including man himself, that have the power to affect change.'

Basically, as defined in this paper,' any society such as the Grenadian or Barbadian society is a dynamic social system

'John H. Kunkel, # - Social J,e-oach, (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall , Inc. , 1975), p. yii.

'The following discussion draws primarily on the Parsonian notion of social systems and social change because this perspective provides a useful operational tool for proceeding within the context of the paper. Needless to say, other perspectives such as the Marxian or phenomenological viewpoints can prove just as useful in an analysis of social systems and social change. However, the choice of functionalism is based on the fact that it is problem- oriented, concerned with finding practical solutions to problems. Moreover, since it AS firmly committed to a philosophy of social engineering as a basis of social change, and is concerned with the effective regulation and control of social affairs, it lends itself to this paper which discusses approaches which can deal with the social changes which have negative outcomes..

consisting of a plurality of interacting persons and groups motivated in terms of a tendency to the optimization of gratification, and whose relation to their situations, including each other is defined and mediated in terms of a system of culturally structured and shared symbols.' Every social system has boundaries and an environment beyond the boundaries. The boundaries of the social system are the borders between it and other social systems as well as between it and three other systems of human action: namelythe cultural system, which involves symbols and ideas; the personality system, which involves individual nneed dispositionw and motivation; and the behavioral organism, which concerns biological systems.' This is of course quite contrary to the common sense notion of a society where cultures, organisms and personalities of members of the society would be internal to the society, not part of its environment. However, this separation is purely for the purpose of conceptual analysis indicating that the cultural system is the area of study of the anthropologist, the personality system the area of the psychologist, the behavioral system the area of the natural scientist, and the social system the area of study of the sociologist.'

The boundaries of the social system are permeable and therefore the four systems interpenetrate and interact with one another. Thus, the social system is an I1openn system, open to and dependent for its survival on exchange of resources and products with its environment. For example, the social system receives religious values like brotherhood and charity from the cultural system, and these serve to legitimize the interaction among people in roles. Likewise, the personality system gives the social system an infinite number and variety of persons who will occupy the roles and fill the organizations that make up the settings of social interaction of the social system - the children as well as the adults who literally give life to the skeletal framework of social interaction. At the same time, the social system reciprocates on this exchange and provides the personality system with a number of diverse roles and settings of interaction that help to create personalities; the roles of infant, child, student, and others help to Lay the foundations. for the mature per~on.~

'Talcott Parsons, m e Social Svstem, (Illinois: The Free Press, 1951), p. 5-6.

'Talcott Parsons and Edward Shils, Toward a General Theorv of tion, (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1951.

. . - 'Talcott Parsons, -es l?ers~ectives. (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966), p. 9.

6Talcott Parsons, nAn Outline of the Social S y ~ t e m , ~ meoriea a1 Theory~, (New York:

The Free Press, 1961, p. 62-63.

Within the social system there is a variety of structures and internal processes or subsystems. According to Parsons, there are four structures in any social system: values, norms, collectivities and roles. A hierarchical arrangement loosely connects all of these structures with one another whereby the contents of one are likely to correspond to the contents of the others, and change in one is apt to create a tendency for change in the others. Values, are the most general and important of the four elements. They define normative expectations for the proper and improper actions in any social system. They represent the desirable qualities of social action toward which people aspire. Norms are next in the hierarchy of the social structural elements. They provide more specific guidelines for social action. More explicitly, they are the specific rules that translate values into action. The third social structure is represented by collectivities, and these furnish the organizational setting within which the values and norms of a social system are specified. Finally, there are the roles, the most concrete and fundamental of the structures. Roles occur within the boundaries of collectivities, and the action of their occupants is guided by the normative expectations of a social system, i.e., the values and norms.7

The processes within the social system, maintain and sometimes even alter the system. According to Parsons, there are four basic processes in any social system, and these processes may be considered as functions crucial to the survival. of the system. Parsons ;:zz L far zs to suggest that they are subsystems'of the social system. The first of these processes is that of latency or pattern-maintenance. This refers to the function whereby the patterns of social organization and interaction which are characteristic of a social system are sustained over time. This tends to be carried out by the family or religious sector of a society. Integration is the second major process of any social system and is that process whereby the diverse sets of structures in a system are regulated and coordinated in a fashion that prevents any serious strains'or inconsistencies from disrupting the system. The societal community usually has this responsibility. The. process of goal.-attainment, that of the formulation and establishment of priorities among systemic goals, is equally important to the survival of any social system and represents the third major process. The polity tends to be the sector which ensures that this is done. Finally, there is the process of adaptation which refers to the allocation of technical resources and role-opportunities to the individuals and the groups which comprise a social system - an allocation accomplished in the pursuit of the system's goals. The economic sector is generally

7Anthony M. Orum, wrodwtion to P o w SoC;ioloav . . - (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,

Inc., 1989), p. 82.

endowed with this task.'

These structures and processes go through various types of changes, and it is during these routine processes that environmental problems such as waste problems may arise. For example, consider one of the many ways in which solid waste is generated and managed in a society. One social system, (e.g. a country like Barbados), adopts and incorporates the value of consumption from interaction with another social system, (e.g. a country like the United States of America), whose technological development encouraged the value in its own system.. This is translated into the norms of conspicuous lifestyles based on high consumer spending and on economic prosperity demonstrated by what people can afford to throw away. The various sectors of the society then ensure that the processes of pattern-maintenance, integration, goal-attainment and adaptation establish and encourage the collectivities which can provide the organizational settingtor these norms and values. For example, the private sector may be given the necessary policy incentives to produce the goods which are consumed in the society and the advertising industry encourages the roles performed by people to avail themselves of these items. Moreover, the government, or the collectivity responsible for waste management, takes away the left overs, i.e. the waste.

What then results is a society in which a volume of waste is produced. This presents three possible problems. Firstly, there may be a depletion of non-renewable resources such as trees and clean water which are vital to life; secondly, there may be an inadequate amount of space for landfilling, or poor infrastructural bases to develop the technology of incineration; and thirdly there is pollution caused by the increase in wastes generated in the system. Therefore, unless the various processes, especially adaptation and goal-attainment are able to regulate the system to ensure more sustainable use of resources, and an efficient and effective method of waste disposal, a serious problem may result.

. Fortunately, the .structures and processes within the system are designed to deal with such consequences and thereby maintain the equilibrium of the social system. It is therefore the effective management of the social changes associated with these structures and processes which concerns this study.

Social change is a complex phenomenon which is pervasive at various l c - c ~ f , ,: st l a 1 life. It is the significant alteration of the patterns of social action and interaction, i.e., the variation or modification of any aspect of social process, pattern, or form, and any modification in established patterns of inter-human relationships and standards of conduct. It is an inclusive concept

which refers to alterations in social.phenomena at various levels of human life from the individual to the global.'

The above definitions cover virtually the whole of social life as indeed they must, since social life is continually changing. Change can happen at various levels including global, civilisation, culture, society, community, institution, organisation, interaction, and individual. Similarly, change can be measured using various units of analysis, including, the Gross National Product, social institutions, technology, income, voting patterns, roles, amount of conflict, and beliefs. Change itself is normal and continual. What differs is the rate and direction of the change at the various levels and the relationships between changes at differing levels.lo

Change is pervasive but patterned, allowing us to understand, describe and analyse it. Many persons have proposed theories to explain social change based on the patterns their research illuminated. As a result, there is a wide variety of definitions of social change, and just as many theories about how it occurs. No attempt has been made in this paper to be comprehensive in dealing with the many theories of change which have been advanced, and this is certainly not an attempt to add another theory to the existing stock. Instead, a social theory has been selected which provides a useful operational tool for proceeding within the context of the study,

This paper therefore, draws on the Parsonian notion that theoretical analyses of change should distinguish between processes which maintain the equilibrium of a system, and structural changes wherein a system moves from one state of equilibrium to another.'' From this perspective three types of processes are identified as social change. The first two, growth and circular change processes, maintain the equilibrium of the system. For example growth, i.e., differentiation and multiplication of the structures and subsystems, constantly disrupt social equilibrium and entails changes and mutual adjustments in the elements of which the system is composed. The most obvious example of this is a growth of roles, in terms of both categories and numbers e.g. population growth and associated growth in the volume of waste.

Secondly, there are circular processes which maintain the

'Robert Lauer, -ctbes on Social Chanae (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1991), p. 4.

"Talcott Parsons, "Some Considerations of the Theory of Social Change," XXVI (1961), No. 3, p. 219,

equilibrium of the system. l2 For example, an upturn in economic performance could lead to higher consumption patterns and a concomitant increase in solid waste production. However, in the event that there is an economic recession and a contraction in disposable income, consumption could decline and so could the solid waste generation.

The third type of social change process is fundamental structural change, wherein a system moves from one state of equilibrium to another, and at its highest level this results in the evolution of total societies. At root, the evolution of societies means the improvement of their capacity to adapt to the environment about them. A society that is successful in making evolutionary progress is one that can handle the demands placed upon it by its environment in ways that represent a more efficient and effective use of societal resources. The essence of this greater effectiveness lies in the creation of more specialized and focused structures that perform the basic functions of the social system - adaptation, goal-attainment, integration, and latency - with greater speed and precision.13 In the case of the solid waste scenario developed earlier, the social system must go through structural changes and increase its capacity to deal with the volume of waste being created in the system, and/or reduce the amount of waste generated. This aspect is discussed further in section 2.

In Parsons8 view, every major structural change in a society, whether it proves of evolutionary significance or not, involves three phenomena: differentiation, integration and strain. These do not necessarily occur in a particular sequence, but all must take place in order for genuine structural change to happen. ~ifferentiation represents the process whereby a single element of a system, or of its structure, becomes divided into at least two new elements, and each becomes more exclusively concerned with performing single, or at least distinctive functions. Moreover, the process of differentiation never seems to take place in only one subzyzkcr., s' .-ne level of structure, but occurs at multiple poiots.14 For example, the social system in the scenario may have to develop additional methods of solid waste management such as incineration or 3R8s programmes, and this would require supportive changes in all the structures, e.g., additional collectivities such as environmental organisations may need to be developed.

''Robert Lauer, Pers~ectives on S o o a e , (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1991), p. 85-86.

13Talcott Parsons, Soci&es: Evolution~v and C-ative . . v e ~ p. 21-24.

14Robert. Lauer, =ctives on Social Ch- p. 87.

In order for new patterns to bec~me firmly institutionalized in a society, differentiation must be complemented by a second process, integration. Integration is the process whereby the new patterns are refashioned in a way that allows a society to maintain its integrity, as a social system, and also permits it to move to a higher level of adaptive capacity. Like differentiation, integration may occur at any number of points in the systems and structures of a society; obviously, if structural change is to be realised, integration must necessarily occur at those points where the new, differentiated patterns have been introduced. Above all else, integration involves a society in seeking out new and more general bases for unity where differentiated patterns, may, and often do, create the foundations for social conflict.15 Referring to the solid waste scenario again, the values, norms, collectivities and roles will have to be refashioned to support the incineration or the 3R8s programme.

Structural change, in short, involves the process. of differentiation, which promotes the division and introduction of new structural patterns, and integration under a broad, if not new, system of values and norms that serves to give the patterns integrity with previously existing patterns in a society.

Finally, if the process of differentiation and integration are to result in genuine structural change, they must be accompanied by tensions and conflicts in a society. Parsons conceptualizes such tensions and conflicts as structural strain, a condition in which a society as a social system cannot meet the demands made on the operation of its structures and its processes.16 In the case of the example g l v e l i , ri; is only when the volume of waste begins to impact negatively on the various sectors of the system that a problem will be perceived as structural and perhaps dealt with at the political decision level. For example, the new landfills developed to accommodate the increased volume of solid waste may be sited closer to residential areas, and those citizens may be affected by dust and odour. In other words, this structural strain becomes evident everywhere in the anxieties and dis-satisfactions it grouses among individuals, and it is only when strain impinges on and involves this level, that structural change may emerge.''

In accordance with this model, the sources of change, whether spontaneous or planned, can either be endogenous or exogenous to the system. Exogenous changes can include things like the impacts of other social systems, as in the solid waste scenario where the

lSAnthony Orum, Utroduction to Pobtical Socioloav . . - I . atomv of the Rodv Politic. 1989, p. 101.

16Talcott Parsons, "An Outline of the Social System," p. 75.

171bid., p. 102.

9

exchange of values led to certain changes in. the social system. Endogenous changes are caused by strains withih the system itself resulting from the disequilibrium between inputs and outputs across the boundaries of subsystems, e.g.,, legal proceedings against the waste management authority by citizens who have been affected by odours and dust impacts on citizens from inadequately managed landfills.

According to Parsons, the concept of a system implies an interdependence of the elements and there is no predetermined causal sequence in the sense that some single over-riding factor is responsible for initiating change. Analysis must therefore determine in each case which is the leading factor, how the process develops, and how change is transmitted through the parts of the social system. In essence this is the intent of this study, to analyse the social changes which interact to create waste problems in the Barbadian social system.

In c ~ l m r c r n r ~ r therefore, the social system is a dynamic system in which structures and internal processes or subsystems go through circular, growth and evolutionary types of changes. During the routine processes within social systems, environmental problems may arise, e.g. waste problems. Obviously, the structures and processes of the social system are designed to deal with these consequences and maintain the integrity of the social system, and 8

it is therefore the effective management of these system-sustaining processes which concerns this study.

The remainder of this section takes a closer look at the concept of solid waste, further demonstrating the connections between social change and solid waste, through the use of examples from various social systems.

Social Chanae Solid Waste Problems:

The solid waste which forms the focus of this paper is defined in the Barbados Health Services (Collection and Disposal of Refuse) Regulations, 1975, as refuse which includes all solid waste derived from garbage, rubbish, swill, trade refuse and other waste matter. la

"Health Services (Collection and Disposal of Refuse) Regulations, 1975, defines "garbage1@ as animal or vegetable waste or other matter that attends the preparation, consumption, decay, dealing in or storage of meats, fish, fowl bird, fruit or vegetable, including cans, containers or wrappers wasted along with such material. 'IRubbishm includes house sweepings, wood, leaves, trimmings from shrubs, sawdust, paper, cardboard, grass, rags, old shoes, tires and all other combustible material. wSwillw includes that particular garbage which is wholly, or nearly so, edible as

Waste-free activities are hard. to find. Activity itself dissipates energy and matter, thus eating, working, playing, farming, warring and any other process within a social system all have one common trait - debris. However, humans are not alone in their waste-making. All life depends on dissipated energy and materials for survival. For example, a blade of grass respires gases into the atmosphere during photosynthesis and provides oxygen. Under the warm sun, lakes and oceans release water vapour into the atmosphere to form clouds that irrigate the earth and, in turn, replenish the lakes and oceans. Through the process of decomposition the bodies of dead plants and animals are turned into life-giving nutrients.''

In a sense there is no such thing as @vwaste@@ in the natural environment. This point is of crucial importance in the process of changing the concept of waste in any society, and will be referred to again, later in the paper. Accordi.ng to the First Law of thermodynamic^,^^ energy is conserved, i.e., the quantity of energy of any system of bodies not subject to external action remains constant. Therefore, in the examples cited above the total amount of energy has not diminished, instead its form changes as nature dilutes, degrades and recycles the by-products of activity back into life processes. This is in keeping with The Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that everything proceeds to a state of maximum disorder, and by implication is less useful in the event of the disorder occurring.

Basically, concentrations of high-availability energy will degrade to low-availability in use, i.e., order becomes dis- order.'= This progression means that energy moves from being in a readily available state to one which is less so, and more energy

food having food value for animals, or foul accumulation from animal, vegetable or other matter wasted, from clubs, hospitals, restaurants and public eating places. @'Trade refusew means the waste product of any trade or manufacture not specified as an offensive trade in. the Health Services (Offensive Trades) Regulations, 1969. @@Waste Matterw includes material composed of soil, earth, stones, wasted concrete blocks, glass ware, ashes, metals and other non-combustible material which is, has been or is to be discarded.

lgWesley Marx, M-vir-nt: lQ&& (New York : Harper and Row Publishers, 1971), p. 7.

*OThe Law of Conservation of Energy states that the quantity of energy in any system of bodies not subject to external action remains constant.

''A. Porteous, Rec~clba. Resources. Refuse. The Open University, (London: Longman Group, 1977), p. 6-7.

will have to be expended to regain. the arfrginal state. The relevance of this principle is that nature inevitably tends to a state of disorder and therefore the materials and energy used to support human life should be used prudently so as to obtain their maximum utility. Moreover, *appropriatem energy use leads to less waste.

Like nature, the social system has established structures and processes for dealing with the 88waste81 generated during its day to day activities, For example, within the societal community, organisations are established to deal with various types of waste. In the case of solid waste, the organisation would control the generation, storage, collection, transport, separation, recovery, treatment and disposal of solid waste.

Solid waste management is therefore one of the necessary integration processes in any social system which ensures that the diverse set of structures and processes are regulated in a manner which prevents strains from disrupting the system, and responds to them when they arise. For example, if discarded materials were thrown anywhere in an indiscriminate manner, they could result in unsightly piles of garbage. Moreover, the substances contained in such garbage might be poisonous, and without. careful attention and treatment these toxins could seep into public water supply systems and create public health problems. In any case the decomposition of organic matter left lying around would create odours which very few people would be willing to tolerate. Therefore it is the responsibility of solid waste management to ensure that these unwanted situations do not occur. However, when the solid waste management processes are unable to cope, and unwanted situations continue to happen, social change is called for, or perhaps it is already underway. Indeed, these strains are nmessagesw within the system indicating the need for social change.

In social systems, under normal conditions, the disposal of this waste through dumping or burning ensures that these substances are also assimilated into the natural ecological cycle. However, there are times when the management of waste can present problems. For example, many western societies, like the U.S. and Canada, have gone through structural changes evolving from agricultural to increasingly industrialised systems. The substances they now produce have changed from being primarily organic bio-degradable materials like food and yard waste, to including many inorganic non-biodegradable materials like plastics and styrofoam for packaging, and toxic nuclear waste which takes very long to decay. Ways must be found to efficiently and effectively dispose of, reduce or eliminate these substances. Technology, being a part of the social system has responded to this problem and is trying to eliminate the strain it has created in the system. However, the response thus far has not eliminated the problem.

There are other types' of changes in social systems which

result in waste problems. In some cases there are changes which slow down the development of wealth and infrastructure in a society, e. g. , colonialism, and civil unrest. At the same time population growth may have been high, as is the case in many developinu countries. Under such conditions of poverty and very large populations, the management of waste is not always a priority, and waste collection tends to be concentrated in the higher socio-economic sectors of the society.22 In the remaining areas, improper disposal in rivers or in open fields can lead to the contamination of the water supplies which could result in public health diseases such as cholera.

Recognising that waste problems vary from one social system to another is important because the correct definition of the problem is required if programmes and policies are to be developed to solve them. Moreover, understanding the interactions within the social system which give rise to such problems can assist in the definition of the problem as well as provide an indication of where the solutions should be directed.

The reality of living on a finite planet with limited resources2' makes it also important to remember The Second Law of Thermodynamics, i.e., concentrations of high-availability energy degrade to low-availability in use. The relevance of this principle is that the excessive or indiscriminate use of materials and energy can lead to a depletion of vital resources. In the case of non-renewable minerals, for example, while experts agree in not forecasting critical limits because alternative materials can be found to the present onest2' events such as the oil llcrisisll of the 1970s and the recent Gulf War testify to the political, economic and social repercussions which can arise when there is a threatened scarcity of commodities such as oil. On the other hand, renewable resources such as forests still need time to replenish themselves. However, if there is significant deforestation or if there is pollution of ground and surface water through indiscriminate solid waste disposal, even these resources may not replenish themselves to the extent required to support human life at its healthiest. .

Thus, the reality of limited resources suggests that there should be prudent use and management of all resources, renewable or non-renewable, because of the possible repercussions of indiscriminate consumption. For example, the manufacture of virgin

"Roland Schertenleib and Werner Meyer, "Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries: Problems and Issues; Need for Future research," W A G - News, Vol. 30/31, (July 1991).

"D. Gabor and U. Colombo, -the Aae of Waste - A w o r t to the ClUb of Ro- (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981), p. 1.

paper requires the destruction of trees. Thsigbore, when there is excessive wastage of paper, in essence it is excessive destruction of trees. Likewise, indiscriminately disposing of wastes in rivers and lakes leads to pollution and the loss of potable water supplies.

The high levels of consumption which tend to accompany the technological development experienced in "advancedw social systems influence, and in many cases increase, what is discarded as waste. For example, if things were truly being consumed, i.e. "used upw, books and courses on waste pollution might not be needed. However, a product is generally thought of as consumed when it has provided all the usefulness its owner expects from it. Thus a wearable pair of shoes, or even a functioning automobile, will be thought of as consumed if changing styles persuade the owner to discard the older product for something newer.

In reality theref ore, only a product.'^ market value, i . e. ,. the use value which has been assigned to the product, is consumed. The remains of that product are considered eligible for release into the environment, thereby helping to increase the volume of garbage generated, increase the cost and perhaps complexity of waste disposal, and also helping to destroy resources which may still have some use. Therefore, the concept of waste, or rather, the perception which society has of waste, significantly influences what is discarded.

In summary therefore, there is a variety of social changes which can result in such problems in social systems. For example, structural changes which allow agricultural systems to evolve into increasingly industrialised systems, are accompanied by changes in the substances they produce. These materials include many inorganic non-biodegradable materials like plastics and styrofoam for packaging, and toxic nuclear waste which takes very long to decay, thereby creating disposal problems within the system. Conversely, events such as colonialism and civil unrest produce changes in the system which are manifested by the slow development of .wealth and infrastructure in a society. At the same time population growth may be high, and under such conditions of poverty and very large populations, the management of waste is not always a priority, and improper disposal in rivers or in open fields can lead to the contamination of the water supplies which could result in public health diseases such as cholera.

In the next section, an analysis will be undertaken of the social changes which have given rise to two solid waste problems in Barbados. On the basis of this information, recommendations will be made about how to improve the structures and processes to alleviate the problems involved with these issues.

SECTION 2: SOLD WASlE PROBLEMS IN BARBADOS

Barbados is an oceanic island located at latitude 13 10 N and longitude 59 30 W, approximately 145 km east of the archipelago in the southeastern Caribbean Sea known as the Lesser Antilles. It is 166 square miles and in 1990 its population was 257 100. Like many social systems, Barbados is experiencing problems associated with the efficient management of its wastes. However, in small islands deleterious impacts tend to be more devastating and encompassing. For example, should the underground water become contaminated by chemicals used in agriculture or by the substances which leach out of landfills, damage limitation is hardly feasible. Moreover, the limited resources of these states increase their vulnerability and decrease their ability to deal with the problems. Special care must therefore be taken to ensure that the waste management prokess is effective so that such disasters can be avoided.

In this section two solid waste problems in Barbados are discussed. The first one is the high volume of solid waste being generated, and the second one is the manner in which some of this solid waste is being disposed. For both problems the social changes which contributed to them will be identified. The section will then be concluded with a summary of these causes and the suggestion of a possible solution which would attend to the causes and alleviate the problems.

ah volygle of so waste in B-dos:

There is no consistent system of solid waste measurement in ~arbados-' p - - m n + l v . the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, is funding a solid waste management study in Barbados, and as part of the initial work the general manager of the Sanitation Service Authority (which manages solid waste in Barbados), and the IDB consultant produced some estimates of the solid waste generated in the island.' Table I provides a record of this information.

lconversation with Environmental Engineer Daniel Forde during a tour of the waste disposal sites in Barbados, Friday, December 20, 1991.

'The statistics provided in this section were only released in April 1992. The IDB study is still in its initial stages and therefore most of the information is confidential. Telephone conversation with the general manager of the SSA, Sunday, April 19, 1992.

Table I Barbados Solid Wmte eneration Estimates (1989 - 2020)

(Tonnes)

I YEAR TOTAL TONNES

(These estimates include household, institutional and airport wastes) .

These volumes may appear negligible in comparison to the fact that in 1990, the city of Etobicoke in Ontario Canada, which has a population of 309 000 (51 900 more than Barbados), produced 131 427 tonnes3 of residential solid waste,' almost one and a half times as much as Barbados. However, it is a problem in Barbados for two reasons. Firstly, the geological structure and the population density constrains its efficient disposal, and secondly an increasing amount of the materials being discarded have re-use potential, and therefore there is a certain level of inadequate management of resources. To understand the extent to which the volume of waste is a problem, requires an understanding of these two reasons. Therefore both of them will be presented.

T h e ad.mt wuUarv landfllllna: . . The Sanitation Service Authority, (SSA), is the organisation

in charge of solid waste management in Barbados. It is a statutory body, whose powers, responsibilities and duties, are laid

'This figure does not include the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI), solid waste which m y have gone to transfer stations or other disposal sites.

'Metropolitan Toronto Works Department "Annual Report 1990," (Metropolitan Toronto Works Department, 1990), p. 29.

out in the Sanitation Service Authority Act 1974-76, the Health Services (Collection and Disposal of Refuse) Regulations, 1975, and the Health Services (Disposal of Offensive Matter) Regulations, 1969. One of its responsibilities is the disposal of solid waste.

Disposal of the refuse in Barbados is currently done by sanitary landfilling." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines a sanitary landfill as a land disposal site at which an engineering method of disposing solid wastes is employea in a manner through which environmental hazards are minimized by spreading the solid wastes in thin layers, compacting the solid wastes to the smallest practical volume, and applying and compacting cover material at the end of each operating dayw6 Diaz suggests that although there are many definitions of sanitary landfilling, they all have certain key elements in common. These are compaction, covering with soil each day and the minimization of environmental hazards.' Moreover, such landfills must be sited in areas where the soil conditions are impermeable to 'the leachate/runoff from the compacted wastes. Therefore areas with a high clay content in the soils should be used, or clay liners must be constructed and lain at the base of the landfill.

Dumping of garbage in the ground, as opposed to burning it or burying it at sea, has always been the form of disposal in Barbados.' As early as 1945, the spreading of earth cover on the disposed garbage and the use of insecticides to control fly and mosquito breeding were common.' By 1960 the island acquired its first traxcavator for the compaction of refuse at the dump sites, thereby introducing the initial efforts of the practice of sanitary

"Sanitation Service Authority, ''A Review of Sanitary Landfill Operations that have been undertaken by the Sanitation Service Authorityon Sanitation Service Authority, 1991, (unpublished paper) .

'J.R. Greco, ''How Some States are Defining Sanitary Landfills, Wu-tes --oval Journal. Vol . 108, NO. 9, 1977, p. 160.

'L.F. Diaz G.M. Savage and C.G. Golueke, Resource Recovery om Municir>al Solid Wastes. Volume 11-11 Proc- CRC

Press, 1982, p. 138.

'The first eleven reports of the Public Health Inspector, running from 1914 to 1923 all indicate that this was the preferred method of disposal.

'Arthur Archer, "Solid Wastes Management in Barbados - A Challenge." Barbados 1978, p. 3. (unpublished)

landf illing.1°

As the volume of garbage generated in the island increased, and landfills reached their capacity, the SSA opened new ones, and over the past thirteen years it has operated sanitary landfills at ten different sites on the island1'. In fact it is currently in the process of expanding the existing landfill and the press releases and reports indicate that all efforts are being made to ensure that the latest technology which the island can afford will be used.12 The SSA and its forerunners have stuck to sanitary landfilling as their method of ditiposal, chiefly because it is comparatively inexpensive to operate and is capable oB reclaiming such areas as disused limestone quarries and other depressions into valuable land.

However, there are a number of technical difficulties experienced during the siting and management of landfills which are beginning to create structural strains in the Barbadian social system. There are four basic difficulties, the first is related to the population density and the other three to the geological structure of the island.

Barbados has an area of 166 square miles and a population of 257 100, giving it a population density of 1 548 persons per square mile, one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere. The SSA tries not to locate landfills within a one mile radius of residential areas. I" However, given the population density and the spatial distribution of human settlements displayed in Map 1, it can be readily appreciated that it is impractical to site a refuse dump in a remote area. Plate I illustrates how close the landfill at Workmans St. George is to some of the houses in that area. Over the years, this has resulted in numerous complaints from the residents who have had the misfortune of living adjacent to the landfills. The most recent example of this is the fact that the residents who live next to the current landfill took the SSA to court in August 1991 for compensation for the adverse effects they have been suffering as' a result of the odour and dust which emanate .

'lchristopher Grif f ith, **A Review of Sanitary Landfill Operations that have been undertaken by the Sanitation Service

t - - Authori+yp . , ~ k - 2 ~ ~ : Sanitation Service Authority), 1991.

12Arthur Archer, Kenneth Belgrave and ~hristopher Griffith, **Report on Project for Preparation of Sanitary Landfill at Mangrove - St. Thomas.* September 1991 (unpublished).

"Arthur Archer, nSolid Wastes Management in Barbados - A Challengeen (unpublished).

-- MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND PLANNING GOVERNMENT Of BARBADOS 1983

from the landfill."

This situation is compounded by the geological structure of the island because it further restricts the areas in which landfills can be sited. The geology of Barbados is predominantly (85%) one of limestone strata underlain by oceanics and impermeable clays. The island's entire public water supply is pumped from the limestone strata in an island-wide distribution system. The limestone in most of the island fc quite porous, with numerous sinkholes, and heavily fissured. These naturally occurring channels in the limestone, causes transmissivity rates to be high, and the fissures therein provide unpredictable acceleration in the transport of water. '"

To ensure protection of the ground-water, the island has been divided into five water zones. Zones 1 though 3 all have heavy water catchment areas, and effectively, landfills, service stations or any other structure which might introduce contaminants int6 the soil, can only be sited in zone 5 (Map 2). Moreover, the high limestone content of the soil further decreases the areas with a high clay content in their soils, and those that do exist tend to generate insufficient amounts of cover material.

Overall then, the high population density in Barbados, the spatial distribution of human settlements and the restrictions imposed by the water zones, eliminate most areas as potential landfill sites. Therefore, although it is a fact that any social system will eventually run out of landfill space, in Barbados it is a considerable problem because most of the land in the island is restricted from such activities.

In the report for the preparation of the expansion of the existing landfill, it is estimated that the entire area will be filled within a total of five years. Moreover, environmentalist, Mark ~riffith estimates that by the year 2000 all of the present landfill sites will have been exhau~ted.'~ Unfortunately this is only an estimate because there are no reports indicating the exact

1 4 ~ e - ~ r h a d o s Advocate. August 29, 1991.

"Arthur Archer, "The Bridgetown Sewerage Project - Its Environmental Impact," Ease Studies from The C a r w a n Se&ar on Environmental (Barbados: Ministry of Health, 1985), p. 38.

''Mark Griffith, "Report to the Government of Barbados on an ~nstitutional Framework for Environmental Planning and Management in Barbados." 1987, (unpublished).

WATER SUPPLY

22 TOWN AND COUNTRY DEVELOWENT PLANNING WFlCE UlNlSTRY OF FINANCE AND PLANNING GOVERNMENT OF BARMOOS 1983

percentage or acreage of suitable land remaining."

To be sure, there are alternative methods and processes of solid waste disposal. For example, there is incineration which would eliminate the need for a lot of landfill space. There is also resource recovery which not only reduces the amount of landfill space required, but produces materials and energy during the process. However, while these solutions would solve the problem of siting and managing landfills, they would not decrease the volume of garbage generated, which is the problem defined in this study. Moreover, it must be noted that the alternative chosen has to be cost effective because Barbados has just entered into a harsh International Monetary Fund Programme, in which one of the measures was an eight percent (8%) cut in the salaries and wages of the entire public sector.

Within the framework of social change therefore, what is needed is a change, not only in the technology which deals with' the solid waste, but also in the concept of waste. In other words, there needs to be a recognition of the resource potential in all things whereby the ideas and practices which lead to the solid waste generation are significantly influenced by conservation as opposed to consumption. In a sense the ideal situation would be a social enactment of the Law of conservation of energy, whereby, just as in natural systems, social systems tried their best to ensure that nothing was wasted, but instead changed the form of materials no longer required in their current state into something which was also usable. This would lead to greater emphasis on conservation, which not only decreases waste but also acknowledges the importance of the prudent use of resources to slow down the inevitable diminishing of the availability of l~usefulN energy in social systems.

In this regard, the diversion of solid waste from landfills through +h3 1 t-'-- - . and reuse1' of items ought to be considered among the alternatives, because it seeks to identify the resource potential in many items which are normally discarded, as well as changes in the ideas and practices which lead to the generation of high volumes of garbage (these will be discussed shortly). In fact waste diversion is an important option since the other reason for stating that the voluae of waste is a problem pertains to the mis- management of resources.

''General Manager at the SSA Mr. Griff ith says that any figure he quoted on this would be a Nguesstimatem since no attempt has been made to plot the suitable areas remaining. Telephone conversation, April 15, 1992.

''Admittedly there is a third method of diversion, recycling. However, this is not being considered for reasons which will be explained shortly.

In an interview with the author, the General Manager of the SSA stated that there has been an increase not only in the amount of materials put out for garbage collection, but also a change in the composition as well. The workers at the SSA have noticed that furniture, motor vehicles, and household appliances such as refrigerators and stoves, which, in previous years might have been repaired or used for parts, are increasingly being put out for garbage collection. There has also been an increase in construction materials discarded, as Barbadians change their houses from the traditional wood to concrete. Disposable diapers, and packaging materials from fast food restaurants, are also present in great amounts, serving as indicators of the increasing importance of convenience to the life styles of the Barbadian public.

It was the perception of the persons interviewed that these changes indicated that the significant improvement in standard'of living enjoyed by Barbadians was being manifested in increased consumption, and in the attitudes and behaviour of a Bnthrow-awayBn or tBconsumerw society. In other words the values upon which the norms collectivities and roles are based have changed. In "consumern societies, the status of individuals and societies is measured by conspicuous consumption, and economic prosperity is demonstrated by what people can afford to throw away. The societiee, e r - , - :---rtantly the values underlying the attitudes and behaviours they Agender, have for some time now been accused of being responsible for a number of environmental problems including energy and resource over-use and depletion, and the generation of great amounts of garbageOx9

During the interviews, a number of comments which reflect this perception were made. For example:

... we have become too sophisticated for our good.

... Pampers as well as the styrofoam products, in ,addition to posing. disposal problems, absorb much needed foreign exchange which could be used for other necessary things. . . ... we have a problem of too much, i.e., we are using too many things and producing too much garbage. .. ... I call my grandchildren "supermarket childrenn they

'Winistry of Supply and Services Canada, Canada as a C- - soyce . . N w o r New Temoloaies, Science Council of Canada, Report X22 , September 1977. See also William Catton, Overshoot - e Ecoloaic(al& --ga, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1980).

do not relate buying milk to cows.. .The manager at the supermarket is a magician, we ignore agriculture. .. ...Barbados is becoming too North Americanised....

The standard of living in Barbados has certainly improved significantly over the years. The process of industrialisation which was started in the 1960s changed the economy significantly. It was predominantly agricultural in fifties and sixties but as Table I1 shows, it is now highly diversified and new collectivities and roles have been developed to carry out the processes required in the new sectors which include manufacturing, distributive, commercial, service and tourism. Although there has been no study of the quantity and type of garbage generated by sector, it is fair to suggest that manufacturing companies and hotels will generate a considerable amount of waste. Moreover, the distributive sector is highly competitive, relies upon distinctive packaging and presentation of the goods for sale, and offers free plastic bags to customers. All of these things serve to increase the volume of garbage.

The purchasing power of Barbadians has increased over the years as well.= The per capita income has moved from USS188 in 1946 to US$5 637 in 1990," and new values and norms of consumerism and material development have been translated into lifestyles which now include frequent travel to places like the United States and Canada. There, in addition to purchasing the latest in U I L A ~ + clothing, appliances and recreation, the various structures and processes within these two social systems are exchanged across the boundaries. Therefore, to the extent that these social systems tend to be leaders in consumerism and material and technological development, these structures are reinforced in the Barbadian social system when it interacts with them.

Evidence that Barbados as a social system has adopted and incorporated structures and processes from other places can be seen in the number of North American fast food restaurants which have been opened in the islande2' Moreover, their existence has not been temporary, on the contrary, they have expanded opening new

291nfortunately at the time of writing, access to statistics on income distribution was not possible. However, conversations with Dr. Neville Duncan, political scientist at the University of the West Indies, and Ms. Celeste Wood, chief statistician at the Barbados Central Bank, indicate that income distribution is fairly equitable in Barbados, there being approximately 5% in the upper income category and 5 - 10% in the lower income category.

"Report of the Barbados Statistical Service, 1991.

2aBarbados has five Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets.

I

Gross Domestic Product by ~c ; tor of0rigin,'11976 - 1990 ? (Current Prices)

Truupcw~ Fmma, Pa Crpiu Nm-Sugar Minima E l d - Whdcrrh S t o n p hu- OoDenl GDPa AddNcr m a t GDP

Afi- ud MMI act- city.Gu Corut- ud R d dC- & Dudnca S e a Oovcmmos F a a x ladLsl Faelm Year Supr culuus Q u u w on' g & WILU IYC(im Tnde Tarinn u&4m Savica C h T u a Rica Cat

(t'm

SOURCE: B d o 1 S t a ( i s t i 4 Setvice

outlets and refurbishing the old ones, indicating that business is thriving. The acquisition is also seen in the supermarkets where shelves are filled with imported foods from the U.S., Canada, England and Continental Europe. Needless to say one of the obvious spin-offs of all of the aforementioned developments is the changing profile of the waste going into the landfills and into the illegal dump sites, (which will be discussed shortly).

To the extent that some of this solid waste is reusable, many of the persons interviewed believe that this potential should be realised. This point was made very succinctly by one of the local senators during a debate in the Senate. The senator made the point that garbage is a resource and that neglecting to make use of it was as near a crime as child abuse.'' While this is an extreme analogy, it speaks to the earlier point about the repercussions of the depletion of renewable and non-renewable resources. It is especially critical in light of the fact that Barbadians are discarding potential resources in a time of economic recession. When the respondents were asked if the current economic recession would result in a decrease in the amount of waste, their responses varied from eventually, to probably not at all. Dr. Brathwaite summarised in a manner which captures the general consensus. He said:

People find ways of still living at the level they are accustomed to. People are not yet behaving as if there are difficulties. But if the situation continues for long enough there will be signs of decreased consumption.

In the meantime something should be done about the volume of garbage, and to the extent that some of it has reuse value this option should be considered.

AS stated in the previous section, the use of an incinerator would decrease the amount of solid waste destined for a landfill but it w n v l d nnt salve the problem of the volume being generated as solid waste an the first place. Furthermore, the solid waste destined for the landfill contains items which may be reusable as a whole or for their parts.

It has been argued that the rising affluence in the Barbadian society and the attendant increase in consumption are some of the

23 Dailv Nati~n, May 21, 1991.

''Interview with Dr. Farley Brathwaite, sociologist at the University of the West Indies, Wednesday, December 18, 1991.

social changes which has caused this increase and composition change in solid waste. Within the perspective of social change used in this paper, these changes, the increasing affluence and high consumption being experienced in Barbados, result from complete structural change. Industrialisation and contact with other more developed and advanced social systems have changed the values, norms, collectivities and roles within the Barbadian social system.

The process of influencing such deep-rooted values and norms and the behaviour and attitudes they direct is quite formidable. The ideas and practices leading to the production of high volumes of solid waste which inevitably accompanies the structural changes and developments which the Barbados social system has undergone over the past two decades, may be deeply ingrained throughout large sections of the social system. Therefore, it is only through a process of social change, directed at changing the concept of waste to emphasise the resource potential in items, and influencing'the ideas and practices which lead persons to generate high volumes of garbage, that these problems will be solved.

Waste diversion through reduction and reuse of some of the items currently being discarded has been recommended for at least two reasons. Firstly, waste diversion is a distinct waste management approach for conserving environmental resources, reducing waste collection and disposal costs, and alleviating energy shortages. Waste reduction refers to decreasing the generatiurl c r i y u L ~ ~ , , by reducing the consumption of environmental resources, and re-use occurs when a product is used over again, sometimes in a refurbished form such as a returnable bottle or a dress from a second hand organisation. Since these activities are based on conservation as opposedto consumption, they could present a countervailing force to the activities which currently promote consumption and the generation of high level of solid waste in social systems.

However, behavioral studies of waste reduction and resource reuse have shown that.waste production decisions usually have more immediate payoffs than waste reduction in terms of convenience and economics.l Moreover, the implementation of waste reduction and resource reuse programmes requires changes in the values and norms, attitudes and behaviours within a society. For these reasons they are more difficult to achieve than resource recovery or recycling which requires that waste be generated and then changes its form. However, reduction and reuse present the more feasible of the diversion processes from a financial point of view, because there is an over-riding concern that measures taken to deal with the

lE. Scott Geller, Richard A. Winett and Peter B. Everett, P r e s e r v i n a t - w Strateaies for B&aviour Ch- (New York: Pergamon Press Inc., 1982), p. 127.

problem be cost effective and recycling requires considerable capital expenditure.

Moreover, as will be shown, already in the Barbados social system there are activities based on waste reduction and resource reuse which could be enhanced and expanded. Therefore, the second reason for selecting reduction and reuse is the fact that in the face of potential resistance to change, it is more manageable if the methods used to promote change come from within the existing structures and processes in the system. Waste reduction and re-use as well as the current processes in Barbados will be further discussed in section 3.

In the rest of this section, the problem of illegal dumping is addressed. Although different social changes have created this particular problem, it will be shown that the same solution has potential for rectifying this situation.

a1 solid waste disr>osal:

The second problem with which this paper is concerned is that of the illegal dumping of solid waste in areas other than those designated by the SSA. This activity is disruptive to the system and is therefore prohibited by the Health Services regulations, and punishable by a fine of up to $5 000, or imprisonment. However, it occurs with great and increasing regularity, and since the areas are not policed, the legislation is hardly enforced, because it is dif f icui L LU u r ~ ~ d l r r ~ i l e information required to successfully indict the offenders. Even when people witness such acts and report them to the SSA, they are usually unwilling to go to court to give evidence.

Illegal dumping of garbage is an especially grave concern in Barbados, because it can introduce contaminants into the ground water supply. Thus it is especially problematic when done in areas such as the Belle public water supply catchment, and Jack-in-the Box Gully, both of which are in Zone 1 water supply areasO2' Gullies are channels or ravines cut by water, and as a rule they are uninhabited and therefore prone to illicit activity like the illegal dumping of garbage. They contain the few remnants of virgin forests and variegated flora and fauna indigenous to the island and therefore their protection is especially significant in the preservation of the island's ecology.

The gullies in Barbados form a network which extend over most

"Ministry of Health, Ground - water P o l w o n Risk AS for the Belle P U i c Water S~pplv Cat-. B- BZ Ministry of Health, June 1989).

29

of the island and, amongst other roles; function as important water courses m d -+phments, (see Map 3). They collect surface rain water and distribute it to underground aquifers via fissures, sinkholes, man-made wells and caves. Surface rain water is supposedly filtered free of contaminants as it passes through the coral limestone to the underground water table. However, heavy rainfall can cause the water levels to rise within a time span of one to two days. In this way, suspended or dissolved contaminants in surface water caught by gullies can be rapidly transferred to the aquifers, and hence into the water people drink.

Illegal dumping also occurs in country fields, 'and on the sides of deserted roads and properties. The effect of illegally dumped garbage is not confined to the damage that can be done to the water supply. Anyone visiting a site where garbage has been indiscriminately dumped can attest to the fact that it is unsightly. Moreover it attracts flies, and other disease-causing vermin such as rats, known carriers of fatal diseases such as leptospirosis.

The perpetrators of illegal dumping come from all sectors of the society. Some are householders who either dump garbage into gullies on a regular basis,. or occasionally dump dead animals and large appliances like refrigerators and stoves. Others are business enterprises which dump large quantities of commercial garbage. Plate I1 shows a site, leased by the Ministry of Health for the disposal of asbestos. However, the construction rubble in the picture has been dumped illegally, blocking the entrance to the site, which the Ministry now has to clear to make it operational.

As indicated earlier, the SSA provides col.lection services to households, as well as special services for removing large appliances. For a fee of about $38 per truck load, commercial garbage can be removed. In the case of the dead animals, householders are permitted to bury them on their properties, but if this is not possible the SSA can be called to collect the carcasses. Needless to say, persons who dump large items like stoves and cars have access to transportation and could just as easily take them to the official landfill.

Why then, do people continue to dump their garbage in this offensive manner? Two of the possible reasons are total disregard of the costs of the actions on the general public, and/or ignorance of the potential dangers to public health. Inmanyrespects it is an example of the tragedy of the commons, the situation made popular by the essay written by Garrett Hardin. Basically, the apparently rational act of one individual becomes irrational when performed by an entire collectivity. Cross and Guyer refer to these types of actions as social traps -- situations characterized by multiple but conflicting rewards. A social trap draws its victim into certain patterns of behaviour with promises of immediate rewards and then confront them with consequences that the

MAP 3

victims would rather avoid."

When one persons dumps garbage illegally the convenience of easy disposal is gained. Once the garbage is dumped in a gully, in a remote country field, or on someone else's property, it is no longer the responsibility of the original owner. In the case of commercial businesses which would have had to pay a direct fee for removal, the cost is now borne by the public taxes which fund the SSA collection services. More generally, since there has been no island-wide water contamination thus far, the possibility of the perpetrators having to pay for their actions with ill health appears remote. However, when an entire society dumps its garbage in this manner, the threat of ground water pollution looms, and may eventually overshadow the original convenience which prompted the activity.

Official reports, newspaper articles, and persons in the Barbados waste management, education and environmental fiexds, suggest that the disregard for the costs of illegal dumping is another symptom of the so-called decay of Barbadian society, as evidenced by rising divorce rates, incidents of youth gang violence, increased robberies, assaults and murders. Such inferences may be unwarranted and a full length study would be required to ascertain whether Barbados is heading down a pathway to total destruction and doom, and whether illegal dumping is indeed a result of that particular social change. Indeed it is easier for the government to blame citizens and such vague ills as moral decay than to admit that it has not fulfilled its responsibility in managing the commons.

However, it is interesting to note that these acts of illegal dumping which are currently being perceived as part and parcel of negative changes occurring within recent years, have been a frequent practice of waste disposal since the early decade of the century. This suggests that such practices have become internalized and will therefore be more difficult to address when trying to change attitudes and behaviours. .

In the early public health records, there was a special section called "disposal of odds and ends," which dealt with llempty bottles, tins, coconut shells, and other odds and ends in yards and

The concern centred around the fact that these items provided ample breeding ground for mosquitos. This was apparently more of a problem in the town areas, since in the country districts "they were easily disposed of by burial or by in gullies or

''John G. Cross and Melvin J. Guyer, Social The University of Michigan Press, 1980, p. 4.

"First Annual Report of the Public Health Inspector, Off i c m . . Gazette. September 30, 1915.

wessions which can be filled up2'.. Therefore, in addition to being a possible manifestation of general decline in morality in Barbados, illegal dumping is a habit which has continued since the early centuries in Barbados, at which time the threat to the ground-water supply and concern over the value of gullies to the environment were not on the policy and political agenda.

Dr. Farley Brathwaite, one of the sociologists at the University of the West Indies, suggests that the dumping of garbage in gullies was re-defined as a problem in response to new information about health and environmental issues which revealed the potential dangers of such activities. Indeed, written comments about illegal dumping only started to appear in official reports and the local newspapers around the end c i the 1970s."O As Garrett Hardin says,

Analysis of the pollution problem as a function of population density uncovers a not generally recognized '

principle of morality, namely: the morality of an act is a function of the state of the system at the time it is performed. Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the general public under frontier conditions, because there is no public; the same behaviour in a metropolis is unbearable. (emphasis his).'l It is the notion of the need for a public, and one

knowledgeable about environmental issues, which is interesting in this statement by Hardin. The appearance of concerns about illegal dumping appeared at a time when significant material improvements had occurred in the lives of Barbadians."'

Recognising that this change has taken place is very

"Note the fact that dumping in gullies was a well established and accepted habit.

'OUp to the 1970s domestic burning and burying of garbage was an accepted practice seen as a self-help measure which assisted the authorities in the collection and disposal of garbage. See for example, Arthur Archer 'ISolid Wastes Mahagement in Barbados - A Cha1lenge.l' and newspaper articles in the 1970s which indicate the use of public disposal sites. Only in the late 1970s and eighties, with the establishment of the Anti-Litter Campaign, and the Keep Barbados Beautiful Committee did articles begin to appear about the environment and the negative consequences of illegal dumping.

G ~ r r e + + u = . r A i n . '(The Tragedy of the Commons, Science, Vol . 162, No. 3859, December 13, 1968, p. 1245.

321n the previous section it was stated that economic diversification duringthe sixties began to improve the standard of living in Barbados significantly.

important. It indicates that the existenbe of -certain solid waste problems is to some extent a social construct, dependant on the information and knowledge available at particular points in time. This suggests therefore, that solution to these types of problems must be located in social change and social constructions of reality, as much as in carefully engineered and technical methodologies.

It also points to the role that accurate information and its wide dissemination can play in at least getting the ordinary citizen to consider changing established habits, since their continuation may based be simply upon inadequate awareness of the potential dangers of indiscriminate dumping. If this is so, it would make it easier to deal within the ambit of the law those who with criminal deliberation illegally dump their garbage. That more information about the dangers of illegal dumping may be needed, is borne out by the fact that although a number of educational programmes have been launched since the seventies by the SSA,'~~S precursors, and variousi voluntary organisations", no real emphasis was placed on the illegal dumping in gullies until the efforts by the BEA in 1990.

In the late 1980s a voluntary organisation was started by a group of young adults who had various backgrounds in various disciplines. The Barbados Environmental ~ssociation (BEA), as it is called, started a variety of campaigns to educate Barbadians about environmental issues. In 1989, as a result of the personal concerns of one of its members who had noticed the stench emanating from a number of these areas, the BEA began charting the gullies and examining the extent of the illegal dumping going on in each.34 A year later the BEA joined up with a number of other non- governmental organisations like the Barbados National Trust and the Caribbean Conservation Authority, and with help fromthe Sanitation Service Authority sponsored a clean-up campaign of the Jack-In-The- Box gully mk-*y -moved approximately 850 tonnes of garbage consisting of beds, refrigerators, stoves, cars, dead animals, commercial waste and everyday household garbage.

4

Along with the actual cleaning up of the gully, the campaign also consisted of competitions on the radio, where people called in, answered a question about gullies, and won a prize; tee-shirts were sold; banners were hung at gas stations; and hikes through the

"The Keep Barbados Beautiful Committee, used videos and lectures in schools and community clubs, and sponsored house and garden competitions. The Ministry of Health also had an Anti- Litter Campaign in 1977.

"1ntervi ew with Susan Mahon, project officer in Charge of the Gullies Project, Barbados Environmental Association, Wednesday, December 18, 1991.

gully were organised. This programme has certainly brought the problem to the attention of the entire island. The president of the BEA iras u l u r c a i ~ d that since the clean up, the gully has been relatively clean, although she notes that there is still the occasional dead animal being dumped there."

Notwithstanding this success, additional work is needed to educate the public, and to prohibit the activity, since there are several such sites in need of attention. In response, the SSA has proposed that litter wardens be introduced to police the sites frequently used for illegal dumping. If established, they will have the authority to inform illegal dumpers of intended prosecution. However, to be able to have litter wardens, at innumerable dumping sites day and night would be costly. Moreover, the cessation of illegal dumping requires temperance, i.e., self restraint on the part of the offenders as well, and the presence of litter wardens will not necessary cause such an attitude change.

To this end, the waste diversion approaches mentioned earlier may be useful because the alternative value of conservation on which they are based is also directed at self restraint (this will be discussed in section 3). Furthermore, like the landfills, the contents taken from the gullies also have reuse potential and therefore waste diversion would also be applicable. In effect, a programme of waste reduction and resource reuse in Barbados should be directed in such a way that certain itens are discarded neither in a landfill nor in unauthorised areas.

In essence therefore, the dumping of solid waste in gullies and other abandoned areas is a long established practice of disposal in Barbados. With the increase in knowledge about the harmful effects of this activity it became prohibited. However, long ingrained habits do not automatically cease when legislation is written.

Within the past two years, public education has helped to spread information about the ills of illegal dumping and there has b e m some response. .More of this kind of work will undoubtedly help to improve the situation over a period of time. However, there is always room for additional solutions and in the next section, the underlying philosophy of waste reduction and resource reuse will be discussed, and ways of implementing relevant activities in Barbados will be suggested.

It has been argued that social changes such as rising

'51nterview with Celeste St. Hill, President of the Barbados Environmental Association, Monday, December, 16, 1991.

35

affluence and increased consumption rates wfiieh resulted from the economic diversification of the 1960s has led to the increased generation of garbage in Barbados. Moreover, the appropriate authorities in Barbados have suggested that this volume of solid waste is too high given the limited landfill space. It has also been argued that new knowledge and information about environmental hazards has led the authorities to prohibit the historical habit of dumping solid wastes in gullies and other remote areas in the island.

Both of these situations indicate the presence of structural strain within the Barbadian social system, the former 3s evidenced by the complaints of the residents who live adjacent to the landfill, and the latter in the concern which the authorities have over the possible contamination of the underground water supply. As was suggested in chapter 1, these are signals that change is needed within the system. In response therefore, the authorities are investigating certain options, e.g., incineration and the use of litter wardens as means of alleviating these problems. However, while incineration solves the problem of unavailable landfill space, it does not necessarily address the problem of the mismanaged resources which are being discarded as solid waste. Likewise, litter wardens could not police all of the possible areas, day and night, where illegal dumping occurs.

Therefore, a change in the concept of waste and a corresponding change in the ideas and practices which lead to the generation of high volumes of solid waste and/or the indiscriminate disposal of this waste in places such as gullies would be more useful. To this end, waste diversion through reduction and resource reuse has been proposed because the value of conservation on which they are based, and the required activities such as sorting and reusing of items which would ordinarily be discarded, offers an opportunity to recognise the resource potential in all things and also to change some of these adverse ideas and practices. In the following section the social changes required to bring about waste diversion in Barbados are discussed.

' SECTION 3: CHANGING CONCEPTS OF WASTE AND WASTE DIVERSION

It has been argued so far that on the one hand social changes such as rising affluence and increased consumption rates have led to the increased generation of garbage in Barbados, and on the other hand, new knowledge and information about environmental hazards have led the authorities to prohibit the historical habit of dumping solid wastes in gullies and other remote areas in the island. The proposed contribution to the solution to bath of these problems is a change in the concept of waste and in the adverse ideas and practices which cause solid waste problems.

Waste diversion activities has been suggested as offering an opportunity to realise this change. In this section therefore,.the social changes required to bring about waste diversion are outlined, and strategies for achieving them are considered.

on:

According to Parsons, the structural strain created by the waste problems in Barbados, indicates that the society as a social system cannot meet the demands made on the operations of its structures and processes. If the society is to successfully evolve and improve its capacity to solve these problems, this strain must be accompanied by differentiation of the society's structures to perform newly required functions, and integration of the new structures into the system.

The proposed solution to the Barbadian solid waste problens as they have been defined in this paper is waste diversion through waste reduction and resource reuse. Basically, waste reduction and resource reuse represent the introduction of relatively' new norms within the Barbadian society. To be fully implemented in Barbados, they require accompanying changes within the other structures, for example, a new value (conservation), the generation of new collectivities (BEA, second-hand stores), and new roles (sorting of rsolid waste, joining environmental organisations). In other words, to successfully cope with the defined solid waste problems, this solution requires that Barbados as a society develops the new structures through the processss of differentiation and integration.

As stated, the stimulus for change whether spontaneous'or

'The word relatively is used because there are some waste reduction and resource reuse activities already in Barbados.

37

planned, can come from anywhere inside or outside of the system. with this in mind, it is useful to examine the elements of each of the proposed new structures which would support waste reduction and resource reuse more closely, so that appropriate strategies can be devised to bring them about.

Conservation is the value which defines the normative expectations for waste diversion activities in any social system. It is a value which encourages waste reduction generally and instills the moderation and self restraint required to stop negative environmental behaviours such as illegal dumping. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources defines conservation as:

The management of human use of the biosphere so that it may yield maximum benefits to present generations while maintaining its capacity to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations.=

Unlike preservation which is the n o ~ u s e of resources, conservation requires that resources be used with a view to sustainability, and it also requires a recognition and acceptance of inter-generational equity.

Sustainable resource management is the aim of the now popularised concept "Sustainable Developmentw which was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.' This in essence requires two actions, efficient resource management and intelligent self limitation.

Efficient resource management refers to getting "more out of lessn i.e., making a transition from an output-centred to an input- centred economy where not all the resources are lavished on boosting the GNP but utilized with utmost efficiency in order to obtain growth without slag or dross.' It involves using less harmful means of production, being efficient in the use of, or conserving non-renewable resources and investigating alternatives to on-renewable resources. In short it is optimising the use of

'The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Worldervat-a - Resources Conservation for S u s t m D e v e l o m The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (Gland: ~witzerland, 1980). ,

'The World Commission on Environment and Development, pyy Common Future. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) p. 8.

'Wolfgang Sachs, nThe Gospel of Global Efficiency: On Worldwatch and Other Reports on the State of the World," ifda dossier, No. K n fNcvember/December, 1988), p. 34.

inputs/resources, such that there is m;inimum input for each unit of output, and ultimately the generation of less waste.

Self limitation means recognising that there are environmental limits to the current levels of production, and thus adapting the level, volume, structure and velocity of production/consumption to the goal of sustainability." It is based on the assumption that material production and consumption is not the highest point on every society's list of norms and values, and it calls for an appreciation of the fact that there are cultural limits to the predominance of production, cultural limits which render production less important and consequently relieve environmental pressure.

>

sustainable development therefore contributes to changing the concept of waste and as a corollary to the alleviation of solid waste problems by virtue of its emphasis on the prudent use of resources. To ensure that the value of conservation is successfully introduced into and enacted within a social system, sustainable development must be accompanied by inter-generational equity. Edith Brown Weiss, suggests that:

nEvery generation receives a natural and cultural legacy in trust from its ancestors and holds it in trust for its descendants. This trust imposes upon each generation the obligation to conserve the environment and natural and cultural resources for future generations. This trust also gives each generation the right to use and benefit from the natural and cultural legacy of its ancestors. These rights and obliaations, which may be called planetary rights and obligations, rorm the corpus of a proposed new doctrine of - ational eau&y in international law. To be enforceable, planetary rights and obligations must become part of international, national, and local law, and be embodied in new policies and institution^.^'

The theory of inter-generational equity says that humans as a species hold the natural and cultural environment of earth in common both with other members of the present generation and with other generations, past and future. Understanding inter- generational equity entails viewing the human community as a partnership among all generations. The purpose of the partnership is to protect the welfare of every generation. To do so, each generation must recognize that it is part of the natural system with special responsibilities as well as rights. Needless to say, this type of recognition would go a long way towards decreasing the items discarded as waste, thereby ensuring the existence of I

I "Ibid.

'~dith ~rown-Weiss, mIn Fairness to Future Generations," Vol. 32, No. 3, (April 1990), p. 3.

resources for future generations, as well as preventing solid waste problems which threaten the health of present as well as future generations in the Barbadian society and elsewhere.

Along with the change in values, waste reduction and resource reuse also require new collectivities and roles to organise the activities which promote them. As stated they require a change in the concept of waste, whereby people see the resource potential in all things -- one person's waste can be another's resource. For example, discarded newspapers are usedto package items; empty jars are turned into receptacles for jams and jellies. "Wasten is therefore a highly relative and time specific concept and new collectivities and roles can develop from an exploration of the usability of so-called waste items.

The actual shape or pattern which these collectivities and roles take, will depend on a number of factors including, the nature of the solid waste content, i .e., the raw material, ' the cultural environment, the level of existing infrastructural development which can support such activities, and the financial resources available to fund these ventures. An examination of various categories of waste will illuminate some of the possible collectivities and roles which could ensure waste reduction and resource reuse in Barbados. In most of the categories the examples presented already exist in some form in Barbados.

Durable waste: Durable wastes include large appliances such as televisions,

refrigerators and furniture. Sometimes these can be repaired and refurbished, however, in some cases these items are damaged beyond repair but may contain valuable scrap materials. In either case this opens up the possibility of second hand stores and jobs for persons who can do repairs. Already in Barbados, automobile frames have been used by the Bellairs Research Institute for the development of coastal reefs.

. The distribution of second-hand clqthes to the poor by collectivities such as charitable organisations like the Salvation Army can also be placed in this category. In Barbados there are a number of these organisations and others such as children's homes (orphanages), which perform this task. A related activity which has declined is the "jumble sale," at which clothing and other durable items were sold in the local market on Saturday mornings. In Canada, this is currently taking the form of "garage sales," and perhaps through boundary interchanges between the Barbadian and North American social systems, this activity may develop in Barbados. It is also noteworthy that at an individual level, people in Barbados sometimes give their clothes away privately, and advertisements can be found in local newspapers indicating the availability of certain durables which are on sale by private residents.

Nondurable wastes: A majority of nondurables are paper-based, e.g., newspapers,

magazines, tissues and paper cups. In Barbados the reuse of these items is limited to newspapers because as stated earlier, the financial capacity for highly technological paper recycling plants does not exist. Nonetheless, a number of residents give newspapers to fish vendors and to trades persons who engage in activities which involve painting, such as house painters, and car body work persons. Other nondurable products have been the targets of active campaigns by collectivities like the BEA and other voluntary groups who advise that the use of these items be reduced, and there is a trend towards the use of reusable plates and cups at events such as picnics.

Packaging wastes: Packaging wastes include cans, bottles, cartons, boxes and

wrappings. There are four drink companies in Barbados. One holds the franchise for Coca Cola and Sprite and another the franchise for Seven Up. Both of these as well as a third company followed the International trend towards aluminium drink cans and PET bottles. The third company, BIM Beverages, has embarked on a project to ship cans to Florida for recycling. They have also ordered a densifier to deal with the disposal of plastic pep bottles. They suggest that it is not feasible to establish a recycling plant in Barbados.'

The fourth company, a locally based company which produces beer and malt, never changed to cans, remaining with returnable bottles. Incidentally, this company is one of the private sector organisations which is in the forefront of the environmental movement in Barbados throwing its support behind the BEA and its activities. For example, they provided free drinks during the gully and various beach clean-up efforts.

There have also been developments at the role level, for example, primary school children still carry their lunches in reusable containers. In fact the trendiness of the designs on these containers to include cartoon favourites such as the "Ninja Turtlesn and "Barbie Dolln, make this a competitive activity among the young. Some adults also take lunch to work in reusable containers, thereby decreasing the wrapping materials which would have been used.

At present a local church organisation has started a project directed at providing employment for young people and at the same

'Yvonne St. Hill and Janice Cumberbatch, "Annotated Inventory of Selected Privates Sector Initiatives in Sustainable Development in the Caribbean." prepared for Canada/WI Strengthening Project, Hay 20 - 22, 1991, (Barbados: Centre for Resource Management and Bnvironmental Studies, 1991).

time teaching them management ski1.l~. The project involves recycling paper through a process of soaking the paper and using moulds to make items such as seedling boxes. This is an indication of the type of initiatives around which collectivities and roles pertaining to waste diversion can develop.

Yard and food waste: There was a time when most Barbadians would automatically

throw their kitchen wastes and the leaves and clipping from their trees into their gardens. Some of this waste was also collected by persons with pig farms for the purpose of feeding the animals. These habits are far less widespread now. However, the National Conservation omm mission has been promotingthese activities. Where ever possible they use composted material in the botanical gardens and mini,lu~= ,-,ic; ,ilich they have erected around the island.'

These are just a selection of the activities through which individuals and organisations consciously or unconsciously reauce waste and reuse resources in Barbados. They have been presented to illustrate the types of collectivities and roles which based on conservation, can bring about a change in the concept of waste through waste reduction and resource reuse. Perhaps in time these activities would permeate throughout the system, and there would be full structural change supporting waste diversion. However, there are strategies by which planned changes can bring about these structural changes, and perhaps more quickly.

waste dive- Barb-

Change strategies are general designs or plans of action developed to bring about planned change. There is a wide variety of social change strategies. For example, Robert Chin and Kenneth Benne discern three types of change strategies. These are: rational-empirical strategies, which assume that humans are rational and will follow their rational self-interest once this is revealed to them; normative-re-educative strategies, which assume that change will only occur as persons are involved in processes which change their normative orientations to old patterns and develop commitments to new ones; and the power-coercive strategies, which assume that some form of power, political or otherwise, must be applied before change can be realised.'

'Interview with Mr. Edward Cumberbatch, past director of the National Conservation Commission, Wednesday, December 18, 1991.

gRobert Chin and Kenneth D. Benne, "General Strategies for Effecting Changes in Human Systems, in D Pl-a of Chuae. eds. Warren G. Bennis, Kenneth D. Benne, and Robert Chin, 3rd ed. (New York: Holt, Rhinehart C Winston, 1976), p. 22-45.

Likewise, Zaltman and Duncan alslo propose four social change strategies. These are: facilitative strategies, which assume that the target group already recognizes a problem and is open to external assistance and willing to engage in self-help; re- educative strategies, which are essentially derived from the same assumptions as the rational-empirical; persuasive strategies, which attempt to bring about change through bias in the way in which a message is structured and presented; and power strategies which involve the use of coercion to obtain c~mpliance.'~

Within the past few years another social change strategy has been getting a great deal of attention. social marketing as it is called, was first introduced in 1971 to describe the use of marketing principles and techniques to. advance a social cause, idea or behaviour. Since then, the term has come to mean a social change management technique involving the design, implementation, and control of programs aimed at increasing the acceptability of a social idea or practice in one or more target groups.ll It is currently being used to market such policies as energy conservation, safe sex and the use of seat belts.

Social marketing is basically a strategy for changing behaviour. It combines elements of the traditional approaches to social change in an integrated planning and action framework and utilizes advances in communication technology and marketing skills.12 In a sense it does not fit into any of the typologies of strategies of change such as those mentioned earlier. Instead, it encapsulates various aspects of each to the extent that the particular tactic or method is required to meet the defined goals.

Zaltman and Duncan suggest that in reality there is no definitive method for categorizing strategies and therefore the labels are somewhat arbitrary.'' They also suggest that a change agent is likely to employ multiple strategies to accomplish the desired change. Moreover, a sequence of strategies may be employed over time. l4

. In developing a .process of social Change through which the "Gerald Zaltman and Robert Duncan, mate- P1-

(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1977), p. 60.

"Philip Kotler and Eduardo L. Roberto, Social -.

a P-c Behavia (New York: The Free Press, 1989), p. 25.

"Ibid .

ideas and practices associated with waste reduction and resource reuse can be implemented in Barbados, it is advisable to use multiple strategies over a period of time because there is a variety of groups to be targeted. For example, there are persons and organisations, who are already consciously pursuingthese goals and may only need financial support or other forms of facilitation with their activities, There are others who are unconsciously performing activities which pursue these goals and may need to be educated further. There are yet others who may consciously or unconsciously be ignoring waste reduction and resource reuse and would therefore require re-eduction or coercion to comply with the goals.

Another reason why multiple strategies will probably be used is that there will be a variety of change agents, with a number of agendas and differing resources at their disposal. For example, the SSA and the IDB have already started researching a solid waste managemcz-l z,---i i,' .if for Barbados, the details of which will'not be available until perhaps year end. Voluntary organisations like the BEA have on-going programmes directed at fostering environmental awareness and educating Barbadians about issues such as illegal dumping and waste disposal. Moreover, as was mentioned in an earlier part of this section, some private sector organisations, and other institutions like the Caribbean Conservation Association, have placed conservation and environmental education on their agendas.

Attention must therefore be paid to ensuring that one strategy does not cancel out the effects of another. This often requires careful sequencing which might not always be possible, especially if communication between the change agents is poor, as is often the case. For example, the gully clean-up by the BEA and other voluntary environmental organisations was a welcomed activity which brought some of the dangers of illegal dumping to the attention of the Barbadian public. However, at the same time, it sends out a signal that someone is willing and able to clean up the mess made by others, and while cleaning up does not necessarily encourage illegal dumping it does not actively stop it.

It is not really possible for this paper to say definitively which strategies would actually be used in Barbados and by whom. However, some ideas on the activities needed to solve the waste problems were proposed by the persons interviewed. For example, one of the final questions which the persons interviewed were asked, was what would be included in a strategy to solve the solid waste problems they had identified. Answers included increased coordination within the environmental and waste departments; research into the extent of the problems; involvement at the grassroots level; and legislation. However, education featured highly among the responses, and there was a general feeing that non-traditional forms of education, such as popular theatre be used,

The comments from the respondents suggest that a variety of methods should be employed to bring about the changes required in the various structures to solve waste problems, in this case through waste diversion. However, these must be considered in the context of the resistance which is likely to be presented within the system, because as Zaltman and Duncan indicate, were it not for resistance, little discussion of strategies would be necessary.'' Resistance has been defined as resistance which serves to maintain the status quo in the face of pressure to alter the status quo.16

Generally speaking, people tend to resist change if they perceive that it will threaten their basic values and securities.17 Likewise, changes which are incompatible with existing norms will tend to be resisted by most members of a social system, because this represents a change in the stability and behavioral guidelines which define what people can expect from each other.'' According to Parsons, whereas roles are readily affected by small changes, to involve values in the process of change the social innovations Gust be large scale and of high impact.19 Since waste diversion strategies are based on conservation, a value which to some extent goes contrary to the grain of current societal values, their implementation will be difficult.

Fortunately, change can start at any point within the system, and the stimulus can also be endogenous or exogenous to the system.

' Therefore, it is not always necessary to try to make changes by directing programmes at the wider social values; it is also possible to start at lower points in the system. As Lauer puts it, it is the Nwisdom of aiming low.nao In other words, if the primary target for change is a particular social value, perhaps it is wise to start with a secondary and more accessible target like the roles.

In any case, wvaluesn are abstractions. In reality, it is the human beings in a society who carry the roles. Only they can act, hold steadfastly to values, use resources, link society to its

5

"Gerald Zaltman and Robert Duncan, Stratecries for P l m p. 59.

''Edward H. Spicer , Human P r p a l Ch- (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1952), p. 18.

''Gerald Zaltman and Robert Duncan, Strategies for Planned p. 74.

19Talcott Parsons, Theories of SocietyL p. 73.

qobert H. Lauer, # p. 383860387.

physical environment, and allocate, utilize and consume resources. Thus it stands to reason that a good point of departure for a strategy of change could be directed at the behaviours and habits of the human beings who occupy the roles in the social system. For example, there could change at the cognitive level through the furnishing of new information to people and raising their awareness of the desired goal of waste diversion and conservation. There could also be change at the level of action, which goes one step further than the cognitive level by requiring that the target audience commit a discrete act such as sorting of household garbage, z - - :i:-; used clothing to charity." With sustained efforts over time, these lower level changes might be transferred throughout the entire system.

One possible way of implementing planned changes to establish waste diversion and change the ideas and practices related to the current solid waste problems in Barbados, would be to concentrate on re-educative and social marketing strategies, directing at bringing about change at both the cognitive and action levels. The programme could be initiated by any one of the organisations already interested in conservation and environmental education. The aims of the strategy would be to change the current ideas and practices which lead Barbadians to generate large volumes of solid waste and/or dump this waste illegally, by the dissemination of information about alternative uses of materials through a variety of channels.

An alternative strategy for implementing the changes which would bring about waste diversion, would be a power-coercive strategy. In this case the government would be the most likely agent of change, and it could use its legislative power to order activities which promote waste reduction and resource reuse. Of course, organisations such as the SSA and the police force would be the actual bodies carrying out the mandate. This strategy would place greater emphasis on the enforcement of legislation stipulating that waste reduction efforts be performed. For example, there could be fines for placing certain articles in household waste for disposal.

A facilitative and persuasive strategy of change would be yet another alternative. Since there are already groups and organisations which recognise the need for solving these problems, and more importantly agree that waste diversion would be a possible route to take, a facilitative strategy which seeks to expand and enhance already existing programmes would be very useful. In this case energies would be direcvd at creating awareness among the various groups about the availability of assistance. An organisation like the BEA which contains personnel with knowledge

zaphilip Kotler and Eduardo L. Roberto, -1 m u - ategies for Chmgba P W i c B-viour, p. 18-19.

about waste diversion, and also has some financial and infrastructural resources at its disposal could initiate this strategy. Advertisements could be used to indicate that the organisatic? ;- willing to assist anyone, individual or group who wishes to pursue activities related to conservation generally, and waste diversion specifically. In the event that there is a response, the role of the BEA would be to facilitate the development or expansion of conservation and waste diversion activities.

In short therefore, there are a number of social change strategies at the disposal of various groups in Barbados, through which waste reduction and resource reuse activities can be implemented. The choice of strategy will depend on the change agent initiating the change and the resources at the agent's disposal. It will also depend on whether the aim is to bring about the change through re-education of new ideas and behaviours; through the performance of activities which would lead to the new ideas and behaviours; or through the enforcement of laws which dictate that behaviours comply with certain regulations.

Ultimately however, it is through the planning and implementation of such social change strategies that the concept of waste will be changed to ensure tbat resources are used more prudently in social systems like Barbados, and that the ideas and practices associated with the generation of large volumes of solid waste and illegal dumping will be removed.

Mr. Arthur Archer Chief Eng., Barbados Sewage Project

Dr. Christine Barrow Head of Dept., Sociology (University of

the West Indies (U.W.I.).

Dr. Farley ~rathwaite Snr. Lecturer, Sociology (U.W.I.)

Mr. Edward Cumberbatch Dir., National Conservation Commission

Dr. Neville Duncan Deputy Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences

(U.W.I.)

Mr. Daniel Forde Environmental Engineers

Ministry of Health

Ms. Beverley Griffith Phys. Ed. Teacher, Queens College

Mr. Chris Griffith Mgr., Sanitation Service Authority

Mr. Geoffrey Headley Chief Eng., Environmental Engineers

Ministry of Health

Miss Lucinda Hunte Headmistress, Parkinson Secondary

Mrs. Susan Mahon P.R.O., Barbados Environmental Association

Mrs. Judy Sandford Journalist

Ms. Jill Sheppard Past Dir., Caribbean Conservation

Association

Mr. David Simmonds Caribbean Conservation Association

Ms. Celeste St.Hil1 Pres., Barbados Environmental Association

MS.* ~vonne St.Hi11 Dir., Environmental Consultancy Services

Mr. Chesterfield Thompson Retired Permanent Secretary

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