Too much green waste, SSA says

The Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) is pleading with Barbadians to stop putting excessive amounts of grass and other plant material with their household trash for collection.

Public Relations Officer Carl Padmore told Barbados TODAY the situation had gotten out of hand, reducing the space for other refuse in garbage trucks.

“We have seen a development which concerns us. While we appreciate that householders must do their own greening, trimming and getting rid of green waste from around their home, we think it is unreasonable that they would expect us to remove ten bags of green waste, along with household waste,” he said.

“At the end of the day, the SSA is primarily in the business of removing household waste… that which is generated in the house. Green waste is garden waste; we use our discretion with that. We might from time to time move a bag or two but … up to this morning I had to go to a gentleman who had 12 bags and wanted SSA to move these 12 bags.”

Padmore also again pleaded with business owners, particularly in and around The City, to cooperate with the SSA in order to streamline its collection process.

“Bridgetown again continues to be problematic. The store owners, some of them have little regard for the job of the sanitation loader. We ask them a simple thing – collapse the boxes so that they become easier for us to move…. When you leave the boxes like that and the wind comes and takes up the boxes, people are going to say that sanitation did not come for the stuff. If you don’t tidy your waste, then we are going to have problems,” he said. (SB)