Despite the Samoa Tourism Authority's (S.T.A.) plastic free campaign which prevents street vendors from selling single-use plastic items at the Friendship Park, plastic has been found to be the biggest source of litter during the Teuila festivities.

The S.T.A. are running a campaign which bans plastic bottles and other single-use plastic products from being sold and brought into the park. The message was announced on the sound system during the Mauluulu and the fire knife competitions.

Meanwhile, street vendors and a few members of the public think this idea was inappropriate given the spirit of the Teuila Festival and the demand for street vendors to sell their items at the events.

Lupe Faasavali,a 51-year-old woman who was amongst the audience at the Friendship Park on Tuesday told this newspaper that the idea to run a campaign such as this was inappropriate as people needed mainly bottles of water while they enjoyed the shows.

“If they ban the bottles of water then they should have coolers or fountains here for the public to refill from,” she said.

“Plus, as you can see, it never works with the mentality of the Samoan people because they will still litter and how the campaign was carried out, it was not strict enough to keep people from littering not only plastics but other rubbish as well.

“It’s a nice initiative but those are just some lapses and things that are missing from the campaign.”

The same concern was echoed by a few other people who were amongst the audience including Peta Sola from Tiavea who came with her family.

“Fortunately, we could still bring our bottles to the park but we heard they don’t allow bottles of water which I don’t think was appropriate,” she said.

“There were heaps of rubbish or plastics lying around after the event and even during the show so it just goes to show that it didn’t work or doesn’t work for most Samoans.”

Ms. Sola explained that from her village in Tiavea, it took years for their residents to adapt themselves to keeping a clean environment.

“Now, Tiavea is always clean if you stop by for a visit because people are used to that mentality now.

“It’s sad to see all this littering, especially plastic, at an area like Friendship Park and I understand it will be cleaned up after but wouldn’t it be nice to see it clean all the time?”

Meanwhile, some street vendors also voiced their concerns about not being allowed to sell their items but they weren’t stopped from doing so.

One of them was a 16-year-old vendor, Titi Amosa who said he was only stopped once by a security guard at the other side of the park but he later managed to find his way in.

“There were heaps of vendors who sold here so I don’t know how it worked but other vendors and I still sold items at the park because people needed to eat and drink,” he said.

“Most of the items they bought was bottles of water and Bongo and we also had a good time watching the show.”

Attempts to get a comment from the S.T.A boss were unsuccessful.