 Coming to you from our GIS studios, I am General Novel and this is your midday news brief. Wayne Neal gets international sustainability honors from Commonwealth and Prince Harry. St. Lucia born Wayne Neal's vision of climate smart ways to management and recycling for St. Lucia, the Caribbean and islands all over the world, recently got a big boost when he's green in the Caribbean business, won a prestigious Commonwealth Innovation Award for sustainability. Neal, who was a longtime resident of St. Alban's Queens, accepted his well-deserved award in London from Britain's Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex. Neal's standout organization was one of 15 winners of the Commonwealth Secretary General's Innovation for Sustainable Development Awards, announced last year to celebrate the most outstanding innovators and innovations from any of the 53 Commonwealth countries. Started in 2014, greening the Caribbean cuts the amount of environmentally harmful waste, going to landfills by providing recycling services to the private sector. The firm also offers consulting services for businesses and presents environmental programs and events designed to educate and empower youth to reduce their dependency and use of single use plastic items. It represents an opportunity to bring what we're doing to other parts of the Commonwealth, especially other small island developing states, said Neal. After accepting the award from Prince Harry and congratulations from Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland. Our hope is that by drawing attention to new ideas and eye-catching concepts, we will encourage others to devise fresh approaches which can be catalysts to accelerate progress towards a common future that is fairer, more sustainable, more prosperous and more secure, said Secretary General Scotland. The awards were presented during a garden party celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Commonwealth, a 53-member global organization of 53 independent and equal sovereign states. The government of St. Lucia is taking advantage of opportunities to tackle problems associated with plastic pollution and its negative impacts on human health and the environment. In January 2019, the government announced its intention to phase out the use of styrofoam and selected single use plastic food service containers in the local food service industry. St. Lucia's journey to reducing single use plastic commences on August 1, 2019 with a ban on the importation of these items. A ban on the use of manufacturing, sale and distribution of items will commence from August 1, 2020. In support of this, Parliament passed the Styrofoam and Plastic Food Service Containers Prohibition Act on June 11, 2019. During the month of July, the Department of Sustainable Development invites other public and private sector departments, agencies and groups to join in minimizing the dependence on single use plastics including Styrofoam at work with the option of applying habits at home and in daily life and sharing with friends and family. Dubbed Plastic Free July, this is an international campaign designed to increase awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives by encouraging people to significantly reduce the use of single use plastics for one month. All government departments are asked to play their part to minimize the negative impact of waste by requesting that a permanent change is made for in-house catering where departments must ensure that caterers will provide biodegradable or reusable dishes, cutlery and glasses for meetings. No plastics or styrofoam shall be permitted. Minister for Sustainable Development, the Honourable Dr. Gill Rigabet gives her full support for this exercise stating, I am pleased with this initiative and I am excited to see how our citizens respond to this campaign. Reducing our dependence on single use plastics can only put us top to indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste which always rest its ugly head when it rains. She adds this is a wonderful opportunity to make way for the introduction of creative innovative alternatives to single use plastics using materials found right here in St. Glutia. To ease adoption of this practice, the department has prepared us and circulated a number of tools for adaptation and used to track progress made in the International Plastic Free July Challenge and encourages dissemination among all staff allowing your organization to have a positive impact in reducing the dependence on single use plastic in St. Glutia. Also available is an information kit that documents the department's journey to reducing plastic providing guidance on selected single use items being targeted during the phase out and potential alternatives to their use. Government of St. Glutia reintroduces tuition refund program for public officers. The Government of St. Glutia and the Department of the Public Service is inviting applications from eligible public officers for inclusion under the tuition refund program for the academic year 2019-2020. The tuition refund program encourages government employees to adopt a more disciplined approach to their studies and places the honors on them to be more committed to their study programs by developing a greater sense of responsibility for their own training and personal development. Public officers sponsored under the program are assisted by the Government of St. Glutia through the reimbursement in part of eligible training costs upon successful completion of their studies. Eligible training costs include tuition fees, the educational institution's official examination fees, registration fees, cost associated with prescribed textbooks. The tuition refund application form can be obtained at www.govt.lz.forms.tuitionrefundapplicationform. That's all for the midday news brief. Thanks for tuning in.