NSWMA launches major waste management project in Hanover

WESTERN BUREAU:

A novel, three-prong solid waste reduction project was on Thursday launched in the Chambers Pen community in western Hanover by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), in collaboration with its western regional arm, the Western Parks and Market Waste Management Limited.

The project is also being supported by the Jamaica Agricultural Society, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, the Social Development Commission, and HEART/NSTA.

It involves a community competition in composting, plastic bottle separation from household waste, and the proper containerisation of household waste.

According to Aretha McFarlane, operations director at the NSWMA, the objective of the project is to educate all participants about the techniques of composting, with a view to having the farmers and community members actively involved in solid waste reduction.

HOLISTIC APPROACH

With over 60 garbage drums distributed to community members for both garbage storage and composting activities under the project, McFarlane said the NSWMA has taken a holistic approach in Chambers Pen to deal with the garbage situation.

“We will have prizes and surprises in the competition aspect of the project, where areas in the community will be competing against each other in the composting and plastic bottle separation aspects,” McFarlane told members of the community in selling the idea to them.

Among the prizes at stake for the various winners are garden tools, chickens and chicken feed, water tanks, a deep freezer, and a weekend for two at a hotel.

“We (at the NSWMA) want this project to be sustainable because there are benefits, not only for you now, but even after the competition, while you (community members) want a clean, safe and healthy environment in which to live, to grow your children and to enjoy your everyday life,” said McFarlane.

Audley Gordon, the executive director of the NSWMA, who spoke at the launch, noted that a high percentage of garbage being generated in homes is compostable, adding that the process of composting is one of the easiest ways to achieve a reduction in solid waste.

“When we compost, we achieve the reducing (of solid waste), we achieve the reusing and we achieve the recycling,” noted Gordon.

According to Gordon, the project is being launched in Chambers Pen with a view to extending it across Jamaica, based on the impact it should have on that community.

“With a small investment of time (in composting), you can contribute to the solution of the country’s waste management problem,” stated Gordon, adding that, nationally, 67 per cent of the volume of garbage which is being packaged and left for collection at gates, is compostable.

While outlining the cost input for transporting garbage to disposal sites, Gordon said that, at a cursory glance, the numbers are showing the possibility of huge savings if people start to practise composting within their households.

“Just a cursory glance at the numbers, it is showing up a savings of close to $2 billion a year for taxpayers, were we to get composting going. That figure is reflective of the smaller amount of disposal sites that we would maintain, the fewer trucks and workers that we would need, therefore we do ourselves, as a country, a favour when we compost,” emphasised Gordon.