By Andrew Smith, Staff ReporterJAMAICA'S SOLID waste generation and management has been identified by the country's Mayors as a critical national issue. Concerns include the length of time taken to collect garbage, transportation of the waste, the lack of adequate landfills and holding stations and the question of who is actually responsible for garbage collection.
Mayor of Morant Bay Joan Spencer summarised the Mayors' concerns when she said, "MPM is responsible for garbage collection but at times we have districts that complain that their garbage is not moved on a regular basis and we will need some extra trucks to solve that problem."
FINDING A PLACE TO DUMP
When asked as to who is responsible for solid waste collection and disposal, Mayor Robert 'Bobby' Montaque of Port Maria quickly asserted that the Parish Councils are not mandated to be responsible for garbage collection. He says that "all we can do is talk to the National Solid Waste Agency". The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) was established in 2000 out of the amalgamation of the five regional parks and markets companies. Currently there are nine disposal sites. Riverton City serves Kingston and St. Andrew, Churches Corner serves St. Thomas, Hadden & Toblansky serves St. Ann, Doctor's Wood serves Port Antonio, Martin's
Hill serves Manchester, Myersville serves St. Elizabeth, Grange Farm serves Trelawny and Retirement serves St. James, Hanover, and Westmoreland.
The reduction in the number of available land-fills has affected waste disposal and is of concern to the Mayors. Mayor Delford Morgan of Savanna-la-Mar says that the regularity with which garbage is collected has been affected. "Our trucks have to travel 80 miles to and from Savanna-la-Mar each day to take garbage to St. James. What this does is that instead of allowing a truck to do three trips they can only do one. And, secondly, the cost of maintenance for these trucks has escalated."
There are also occasions where the garbage does not even reach its appointed destination. According to Mayor Morgan, garbage is dumped in the sugar cane fields. He says, "the trucks would simply drive into the intervals and deposit the garbage there. Now, these intervals may very well be a mile from the road. It's only discovered when the rangers go in to fertilise or try to get rid of animals from the cane - then they see these loads and loads of garbage in the cane fields."
One possible answer to the problem of reduced land-fill sites is establishing "holding areas" or sorting stations. Mayor Milton Brown of May Pen said that these will improve the efficiency of waste management because, "you would not be moving all the garbage from May Pen to Riverton City on a daily basis. You take it to a sorting station where it will be sorted and what is to come to Riverton comes and the bottles that ought to be recycled will go to the recycling plant." To date these holding stations have not been established, so, "we continue to use tipper trucks to carry plastic bottles from May Pen to Riverton City."
Mayor Montaque believes that Jamaica needs a more active recycling programme. He says, "the whole solid waste management in Jamaica needs to be properly addressed because it is an economic activity. In terms of recycling we can earn money, so we need to stop looking at garbage disposal as a problem but rather as an opportunity."
PAYING TO DUMP
The Mayors cite many instances where garbage is not collected by the NSWMA. When this happens, the Parish Council has to obtain trucks to assist with the garbage collection. Mayor Alston Hunter of Port Antonio says, "sometimes four weeks, five weeks nothing is collected. We had to take cash out of the Parish Council a couple weeks ago to employ two tipper trucks. We are hoping that North Eastern Parks and Markets will assist we have (also) asked for corporate help. We have a truck on its way coming down from London which we will employ in the system."
In spite of cases where garbage is not collected by the NSWMA, they are still paid for the service by the central government. According to Mayor Montaque, "The Ministry draws a cheque and pays to the National Solid Waste Agency, whether they collect the garbage on not." Mayor of Portmore, George Lee, sees this problem as an issue related to the collection of property taxes. Property taxes are collected by the Revenue Department, but he believes that there could do more effort to collect them. Mayor Lee said, "if we were maximizing and collecting enough of the property tax then we could take care of the solid waste and the light. As a result, the Central Government has to pick up a lot of the tabs for solid waste at this time." By picking up the tab in this way, Mayor Montaque says that they do not ensure that the Parish Councils have signed off on the job which is being paid for.
A LOAD OF RUBBISH
If an holistic approach is taken to the issue of solid waste management, then the actual generation of this waste has to be addressed. According to the Jamaica's Environment 2001 report published by the National Environment and Planning Agency and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, increased population levels and changes in lifestyle have led to increased domestic consumption and subsequent waste generation. Between 1995 to 1999, the annual estimated generated domestic waste in Jamaica rose by nearly 60 per cent from 597,000 tonnes to 945,000 tonnes. Mayor Brown of May Pen gave an example of this phenomenon in Clarendon where, "we have had this massive Longville Park development - the Mineral Heights development - that has moved thousands of people from outside the parish into the parish and with that comes the garbage disposal problem."
Improper garbage management can threaten human health, cause land and water pollution, soil contamination, and landfill emissions can contribute to global warming. Therefore one way or the other, proper solid waste management has to occur. In Mayor Montaque's words, "when the garbage piles up we just have to hire a truck - we can't sit down and wring our hands and complain and quarrel about MPM or NEPM. Just hire a truck and collect the garbage because people expect this garbage to be removed and they expect us to get it done."
