A German native has come up with an incredible way to get a Jamaican beach cleaned – by encouraging holidaymakers to pick up trash.
Marian Erbach, who lives in Jamaica, was fed up of seeing clumps of litter and plastic spread all over the beautiful beach.
He wanted people to be more mindful about throwing rubbish on the beach, but soon realized that it was practically an impossible task unless he gives them something in return.
That’s when he came up with a brilliant idea to get this seemingly impossible task done by the tourists themselves.
He started exchanging a ‘pure ganja no tobacco added’ joint for every basket stuffed with trash.
The idea popped up in his mind when he was ‘totally upset’ on seeing plastic trash on swirling waves.
Speaking to LADbible, Marian said: “I was just totally upset with all the garbage around us, so the last months I did a lot of research about trash, specially about plastic trash.
“I often saw some pics where people offered free coffee for a bucket of trash. My girlfriend made a joke, she said, ‘In Jamaica we should offer free spliffs.’”
According to the 33-year-old, bartering a marijuana joint with rubbish is just a gift exchange, far apart from any illegal activity.
Marian keeps just 56 joints at a time, with each containing 1-gram marijuana, because 56 grams of the stuff is the maximum quantity of weed a person can carry in Jamaica as a minor offense punished by a negligible fine.
“For us it is not possible to trade or change ganja for trash or anything, we just don’t have the license and no permit for it,” he said.
“One of the funniest things about all that, the two buckets I bought were more expensive than all the joints.”
Marian is the owner of Germaican Hostel. But now, beside his business, he is also managing the garbage-problem in probably the most effective way possible.
Speaking about how he tackles people and the rubbish they deposit, Marian said: “The buckets are at the bar next to my sign, so take up a bucket, walk the beach, fill it, bring it to the bar and get a spliff.
“These are presents. All the garbage which is collected will be taken by the local garbage collection; they take it to the landfills.”
He also explained how bulks of the garbage get into the beach and flow to the front edge.
“This beach is on the east coast. The water flow brings a lot of garbage to the beach, mostly plastics, all different kinds from all over the world,” he said.
“If you look where some of these products are produced or where they come from, you see a big amount of it is not originally from Jamaica.”