Landfill concerns

Government is looking for an alternative waste disposal site to the overflowing Mangrove Landfill in Vaucluse, St Thomas.

Minister of Environment and National Beautification Trevor Prescod made the announcement while speaking to the media at the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) as two new garbage trucks hit the road this morning. He revealed that the landfill’s “working life” had another three to four years.

Prescod stated that Government was currently in the process of looking for alternatives. He disclosed that the
operation of the landfill was $2 million monthly and the Government has been working on reducing the sum by more than 50 per cent.

“We have plans for waste and energy approaches and we are talking to a number of private institutions about how we can use what we call waste in order to reduce energy costs and those operations,” the minister responsible for environment said at the press briefing.

Broaching the subject of recycling, Minister Prescod told Barbados TODAY that Government was attempting to gradually persuade and guide the public on proper separation of trash. Prescod acknowledged that it would be difficult for the SSA to lead the separation of garbage initiative considering the financial constraints the Government was experiencing and its limited fleet available for garbage collection.

“Although we recognize the importance of separating the garbage at source, we are not in a position to make that mandatory at this point but we will use some form of persuasion to cause the general public to prepare themselves for the general changes so that we will have more than one bin at each house,” said the minister.

“It is a bit burdensome to introduce at this specific time,” he admitted.

While noting that his ministry will continue the National Clean-up and Beautification Campaign which begun in July 2018, Prescod hinted that when the Government was in a better position the state might move towards mandatory recycling.

“If we require Barbadians to have even one bin at each household at this time it is going to be difficult. . . . When we are in a better position the state will contribute towards the transition. The state might contribute to making these bins available at a national level,” he commented.

General manager of the SSA, Janice Jones added that public education and changing the habits of locals were necessary for change to occur.

“We need to get each householder in Barbados to be aware that garbage is their responsibility to a point and to ensure that they do what is necessary to reduce what they put into the garbage bins,” she said.