A vision for a clean Fiji
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Environmental campaigner ... Alexander Austin's vision for a cleaner Fiji led to the set-up of Green Steps
He has a vision to see to a clean Fiji in future.
Alexander Austin, better known as Alex, does not only hold this vision but has taken things to a far practical level of happenings.
Happenings which have mobilised the business community particularly to unite for a cleaner Fiji.
Alex, who is the production manager of family-run and Fiji's only cosmetic manufacturing factory Pure Fiji, cannot stand the sight of a dirty and messy beach area.
His conscience to do something about the filth lying around gave birth to Green Steps.
Green Steps is the coming together of several companies for environmental clean-ups and awareness.
"I started Green Steps initially about June 2007 because I saw the need to do something about the amount of rubbish that was washing up on our shores. I remembered as a young child playing in the sand at the Suva Point beach and watching the fish swimming in the pools at low tide. You could see the sand then," Alex said.
"This is where I learned to swim. I was horrified when I went down to that same beach to see the state that it was in. Something had to be done, but what? What could I do."
The thought kept running in his head and he knew something had to be done.
"I contacted several business owners and managers and asked them if they would be interested in helping me clean up the foreshore and beaches," he said.
"Then I had to think of how they would get their recognition for their efforts. And so from that Green Steps was born."
Green Steps is putting rubbish bins around Suva for the public to use.
The bins are sponsored by local businesses and money raised from sponsorship of these bins funds the ongoing environmental clean-up programs that Green Steps has been doing since January last year. The Green Steps rubbish bins are emptied, cleaned and maintained by the Green Steps crew on a daily basis.
"Green Steps employs four young men from the community to perform these duties as well as the environmental clean up program," explained Alex.
"Every day Green Steps employees walk along the foreshore of Suva from the Suva Wharf to Suva Point picking up rubbish. Currently Green Steps has approximately 60 rubbish bins in Suva and we aim to have over 100 bins installed by the end of the year."
It's this civic pride that makes him do what he does every day.
Green Steps' goal is to have a public rubbish bin accessible to everyone on every major road and public area by 2011 with adequate staffing to look after it.
Seeing the progress and effect of his actions is an achievement that gives him a sense of satisfaction.
The planet Earth is a living breathing thing that is at our mercy, says Alex.
"We need to take care of the land that we live on. We would not throw rubbish on the ground in our office or at our homes, so why do it when we are outside? This type of carelessness has to stop before the problem becomes to big for us to handle," he said.
The almost 40-year-old is happily married with two children who are the world to him.
"In my spare time I ride around Suva on my "TukTuk" picking up rubbish and if time allows I occasionally go sailing on the family Hobie Cat," he said.
Alex believes there is still a lot of room for improvement.
"I know that Fiji can and very soon will be very beautiful, but in order to get to that stage we have to do a lot of education and enforcement. We have to teach our children from a very young age that littering amongst other things is not acceptable," he said.
Though he has spent 17 years in United States of America, Fiji is his home.
"There is no better place to live than in Fiji. We have the best country in the world. The best place to raise children, the best and friendliest people in the world," said the Fiji-born man.
His motto is: Life is not a dress rehearsal. We have one opportunity to live our lives and only one Earth to do it on.
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