Landfills will replace dumps
published: Friday | November 28, 2003
THE UNSIGHTLY dumps now used for the disposal of solid waste will be replaced by landfills, which are to be established at four locations islandwide.
This, as the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) embarks on its plan to establish four landfills to handle waste disposal in four locations across the island.
As part of its new paradigm in the management of solid waste, each area will be provided with a waste shed that will be complemented by transfer stations - facilities where solid waste is collected, aggregated, sorted and processed for transfer to another facility for further processing.
These plans formed part of a presentation made at the NSWMA's workshop on solid waste management in Jamaica at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston on Tuesday.
Riverton City in Kingston and Retirement in St. James are the regional disposal sites which have been identified so far and are undergoing improvements to upgrade them to landfills. The locations of the landfills for the southern and north-eastern waste sheds are still being finalised and this is being done jointly with the Project Executing Unit of the Ministry of Local Government.
CONSTRUCTION TIME
The landfill will take approximately three to five years to construct as alternative funding will have to be sought, however tenders to select landfill sites are out and it is hoped the contracts will be awarded by year end. The project will be managed by the Government in the medium to long-term. It is hoped that with the introduction of transfer stations, efficiency in the collection of waste will be greatly improved.
This will be realised through reductions in the time spent by trucks to collect and haul waste. The transfer stations will be located in close proximity to communities from which waste will be collected and a long haul vehicle will transport waste from transfer centres to the regional disposal site
LESS WEAR AND TEAR
According to the NSWMA, this will provide better collection coverage and less wear and tear on collection vehicles.
In the meantime, the authority has acquired 20 new compact trucks to boost collection capacity and to reduce irregular collection due to breakdowns. The authority has also embarked on a drive to increase public awareness about its services and the National Solid Waste Act, which grants the authority enforcement powers.
These strategies are a part of the NSWMA's new solid waste management plan, which is to be implemented within the next three years. Other aspects of the programme include a cost recovery system to generate revenue for the NSWMA; the development and implementation of new legislation and regulations for the sector; the development of a national plan for handling hazardous regulated medical and special wastes and developing the human resource element. The authority has also embarked on a drive to discourage littering through enforcement and fines and is also considering recycling as a possible solution to handling waste.
