Sometimes, we need to give to get, right?
The Germaican Hostel is located in Long Bay, Jamaica and its owner has a creative way of keeping their local beaches pristine.
With every full bucket of garbage picked off from the sand at the nearby beaches and brought into the hostel, a person can get a free joint from the owner.
The owner of the hostel, German native Marian Erbach, 33, who is now a resident of Jamaica, said he came up with the idea after he and his partner were researching about plastic waste and its impact on the coastal area.
They got really upset about the waste around them and the immense plastic and rubbish on the beautiful beaches, so they decided to do something.
Will this idea help them motivate people to maintain better care of their beaches?
Offering a Free Spliff for a Cleanup of the Beach
During the research, the couple found out that a lot of restaurants were offering free cup of coffee for a bucket of collected trash.
This is when his girlfriend jokingly said that ‘in Jamaica, they should offer free spliffs’. And, this is how they came up with the idea.
They rolled 56 grams of weed into 56 joints. 56 grams is the maximum allowed amount of this substance that a person can possess in Jamaica without getting a fine.
They also placed buckets for collection of garbage next to their bar sign explaining potential cleaners to ‘take up a bucket, walk the beach, fill it, bring it to the bar, and get a spliff.’
Erbach reminds that this exchange is a gift rather than a transaction to prevent coming into conflict with the local authorities.
He explained that there’s no possibility of them trading or changing cannabis for garbage or anything else- they don’t have the license or permit for such a thing.
This decision to gift people with cannabis if they collect trash from the garbage may sound like a quite costly one; however, the owner of the bar claims it’s not.
He claims the two buckets he bought were actually more expensive than the joints he gives as a gift. The couple later collects the trash the cleaners bring and they send it to the landfill.
Was the Gift Idea Accepted by the Bar & Beach Visitors?
In less than half an hour after placing the sign at the Long Bay Beach, the first individual came in and grabbed a can and came back later and got his gift.
Erbach is glad that this method is being accepted by visitors as the water flow brings a lot of waste to the beach, most of it being plastic, from different areas in the world.
This is certainly an interesting and unusual way of fighting off the world pollution-we wonder how many beach cleaners will visit the hostel…
Sources: