April 26, 2009

Dear Sir,

I have spent the past eight weeks visiting in Bermuda, living as a local but with the perspective of a visitor.

Bermuda's reputation as a beautiful place to visit could be irreparably tarnished by the amount of litter that I have observed across the island. Perhaps because we visitors do a lot of walking along the roads and paths travelling to and from bus stops and island attractions, the litter is more noticeable to us than to residents.

I have lost count of the number of rusted remains of motorcycles and motor scooters I have seen along the Bermuda Railway path. I have attached a few photos of litter and graffiti that I photographed only this afternoon as I walked between the Heron Bay MarketPlace on Middle Road in Southampton and my lodging on Spice Hill Road in Warwick.

For the past 16 years, Australians have devoted more than 8 million hours towards the environment through Clean Up Australia Day and collected over 200,000 tons of rubbish: http://www.cleanuptheworld.org/au/About/the-clean-up-story.html

Think how beautiful Bermuda would be, not just from afar, but also upon close inspection, if Bermudians devoted one day each spring to picking up rubbish in their own neighborhoods. What a wonderful community project for Bermuda's youth!

LYNNECE GAINES

Denver, Colorado