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DEQ sees little response to green campaign
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Posted on Jul 29 2008
[B]By KRISTI EATON[/B]
[I]kristi_eaton@saipantribune.com
Reporter[/I]
Reporter[/I]
Despite the Department of Environmental Quality’s best intentions, many community members are not receptive to environmental education, an organization spokeswoman said.
DEQ began going door-to-door in several villages in June in hopes of educating the public through the House-to-House campaign.
“The intention of bringing education to residents was to take up 1.5 to 2 minutes to teach them about energy conservation, marine debris, recycling and green driving,” Reina Camacho of DEQ said.
She said the goal of the campaign was to educate those in the community who might not have access to resources about the environment. The group tried to focus on topics that would help consumers save money, such as promoting buy-backs for aluminum cans, saving money on gas by not filling up, and switching from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs.
“This was one attempt to bring education to the village level for those who do not necessarily read a newspaper or have Internet on their own,” she added.
Unfortunately, Camacho said, many residents said they did not have time for the quick lesson.
“Some homeowners were too busy preparing lunch, even if we said we were only going to take a few minutes,” she said.
The organization had little success in the villages they went to, Camacho said.
She said the organization decided to abandon the other villages, and instead go to local grocery stores, hoping people would be more receptive.
Community members were a little more receptive at the grocery stores but, Camacho said, the organization has become concerned the pamphlets they are handing out will not be disposed of properly.
“We’re concerned the free information will not be read, and end up becoming debris and not recycled,” she said. “We want to just talk with them, but that’s been kind of hard.”
Camacho said she understands people are busy but hopes they will give up just a few minutes of their day.
“You’re in and you’re out and you want to move on with your day…but at the same time, you’re already out of your house,” she said about people at the grocery stores.
DEQ will continue to try to educate people at local grocery stores, but will slowly taper off the campaign, Camacho said.
