We need to do better with civic sense

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The 2026 staging of the Sagicor Sigma Run was my first time attending the event. I went expecting to feel inspired, instead I am still very appalled by the amount of littering I witnessed.

As thousands of us ran and walked in the name of recovery and resilience, the roads were left covered in plastic water bags and other waste. The contrast was jarring.

People were taking selfies and posting about the good they and their companies were doing to help rebuild after a hurricane. At the same time, many of those same participants were tossing water bags onto the road. I had to dodge plastic at several points along the route. In multiple areas, the street was slick with discarded bags. People were slipping. It was a safety hazard.

Large events hire cleanup crews, but this not be treated as an excuse to litter. The idea that throwing garbage on the ground is “giving someone a job” reveals something deeper about how we understand responsibility. That mindset doesn’t disappear when the event ends. It shows up on our streets, in our gullies, and along our coastlines when there is no organised cleanup waiting.

If someone can hold their phone for 5.5 kilometres without dropping it, they can hold onto their waste. It can fit into a pocket, a vest, a waistband, placed in a bag and thrown into several bins which were along the route.

We often speak about loving Jamaica. We rally impressively after disasters. But civic pride isn’t just about showing up for a photo opportunity or donating funds.

If we do not confront this behaviour head on, we risk normalising it. And if we continue to contribute to pollution while claiming to care about recovery, we are only deepening the crisis we say we want to fix. Our everyday habits contribute to larger patterns, whether we acknowledge it or not.

We need serious, sustained discourse about shifting our societal attitudes towards littering and pollution. We need to call it out when we see it. We need to stop laughing it off. We may even need to bring back a sense of shame around behaviour that harms all of us.

Rebuilding our culture of responsibility is just as urgent. If we cannot hold onto a plastic bag for a few kilometres, how serious are we about holding onto our future?

NATALIA BURTON