As an Executive Officer at the Tobago House of Assembly, Essie Parks provides assistance to the Assistant Secretary on social service programming, policy formulation, project evaluation, and research focusing on building a more efficient and sustainable recycling system. Essie also is Co-founder of the Pink Diamond Society for Ladies, an association of women and girls dedicated to increasing the well-being of females in the area.
While in the U.S., Essie worked at Eco-Cycle [8] where she learned strategies in implementing the policies, programs and infrastructure needed to promote sustainable waste management practices and attaining zero waste targets.
Since returning to Tobago, Essie has been working on her follow-on project, Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Tobago’s Journey towards Sustainable Waste Management, aimed to introduce a Zero Waste movement in the Tobago House of Assembly. As a result, a waste characterization study was completed in April of 2012, and a digital scale was ordered. In May of 2012, a waste minimization and recycling project was added and included in the 2012 fiscal year budget of the Tobago House of Assembly.