Mayor: Businesses behind 80% of MoBay’s illegal dump waste
Published:Saturday | March 14, 2026 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Montego Bay Mayor, Richard Vernon, is urging stricter oversight of the city’s business community, arguing that commercial operators should face prosecution for improper waste disposal. The practice, he warns, is costing the municipality millions of dollars, funds that could otherwise support essential development projects.
Addressing Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, Vernon said information from the National Solid Waste Management Authority’s (NSWMA) Western Parks and Markets division suggests that 80 per cent of the waste found at illegal dump sites in and around Montego Bay originates from businesses.
“It is obvious that we are having a challenge with how business operators in Montego Bay are disposing of their waste. We said we would audit them to ensure they have either a contract with the NSWMA or with private contractors, and they must be able to show how they cart away their waste, or whatever mechanism they have in place, but it is a challenge,” said Vernon.
“We have to check all the businesses in the space, because this malpractice is costing us millions of dollars in funding that could be used elsewhere to advance other projects,” he added.
“We have to do some enforcement, put the fines in place, bring people to court, and do what needs to be done, because talking is not really getting us anywhere. If for all the illegal dumpsites we identify, 80 percent of the content is commercial waste, we have to go to the source and deal with the commercial operators.”
St James has long struggled with poor waste management, with illegal dump sites scattered across the parish and widespread disposal of rubbish in gullies and drains. These practices have contributed to rat and mosquito infestations and recurrent flooding. The situation deteriorated further after Hurricane Melissa struck on October 28, with residents complaining that domestic waste, both before and after the Category-5 hurricane, has gone uncollected for weeks.
Under Section 45 of the National Solid Waste Management Act, anyone who disposes of solid waste in an unauthorised area, or in an unauthorised manner, is liable to a fine of up to $1 million or imprisonment for up to nine months, or both.
Vernon also cited reports from the National Water Commission (NWC) that its teams have repeatedly removed restaurant waste from a sewage line in downtown Montego Bay. Improperly discarded food waste from eateries and street vendors was previously blamed for sewage overflows in 2021.
“The NWC did some cleaning of their sewage line in the lower Union Street area, and they actually took a vanload of waste out of the system that came, perhaps, from restaurants and other establishments within the area,” Vernon said.
“They are complaining that each time they get calls that the sewage line is blocked or overflowing, residents are saying they are not doing their work properly; but they [NWC] are attributing the overflow to inadequate grease traps within the space, and it is costing millions to maintain the space.”
Deputy Mayor Dwight Crawford, councillor for the Spring Garden Division, added that businesses in the Freeport area have been dumping refusem, particularly food waste, on nearby lands.
“Every evening it seems that the businesses in Freeport are dumping their commercial waste in that zone. They reliably go there every evening and turn the commercial space into a dump area,” he said. “What I am seeing is material that would be used in a restaurant and not in a home. A home will produce one or two bags of chicken, but when you see more than one, it tells you that it is a business establishment that is responsible.”
During the meeting, officials disclosed that 76 districts across St James were behind on garbage collection in February. Night-time collections in Montego Bay and the use of private contractors form part of ongoing efforts to clear the backlog. WPM deployed seven garbage trucks and one private contractor during the period.