Le Hunte looks to recycling

From left, Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte chats with Hayden Romano, Managing Director of the EMA, while Nadra Nathai-Gyan (EMA chairman) and the Ministry’s deputy Permanent Secretary Beverly Khan listen.
From left, Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte chats with Hayden Romano, Managing Director of the EMA, while Nadra Nathai-Gyan (EMA chairman) and the Ministry’s deputy Permanent Secretary Beverly Khan listen.

People who scavenge at dumps can now make a living through an alliance between the Public Utilities Ministry and the Solid Waste Management Company Ltd (SWMCOL).

Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte said on Tuesday that the country’s three landfills – Guanapo, Forres Park and Beetham – were almost filled to capacity.

“We clearly have a lot of garbage coming into our dumps and one of the ways to look at it is, it is time for SWMCOL to speed up the whole idea of recycling and adopting the philosophy of turning waste into gold,” he said.

Le Hunte said they were looking for partnership arrangements with the private sector to help recycle some of the garbage and working on projects with the waste to do some biodegradable, bio-engineered landfills while partnering with other agencies to help reduce some of the residual waste.

Speaking at the MPUi and MET APP and the Public Sector Recycling Programme launch, at the Public Utilities Ministry in St Clair, Le Hunte said at Guanapo Landfill there were about 30 salvagers who were working with SWMCOL’s recycling project.

On the issue of fires being set by some scavengers and even residents because they were not allowed on to the landfills, Le Hunte said the ministry was doing preventative work that may stop this from happening.

From left, Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte chats with Hayden Romano, Managing Director of the EMA, while Nadra Nathai-Gyan (EMA chairman) and the Ministry’s deputy Permanent Secretary Beverly Khan listen.

From left, Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte chats with Hayden Romano, Managing Director of the EMA, while Nadra Nathai-Gyan (EMA chairman) and the Ministry’s deputy Permanent Secretary Beverly Khan listen.

“It is a very difficult thing to try to police, but hopefully the real way of solving that problem is really trying to get recycling, get the people who go into these dumps as we have done, in our pilot projects. We try to get these salvagers, to get them involved in productive employment in working with these recycling companies, so if we give them another form of income, they would not have to go into the dumps and try to salvage from waste.”

He also introduced garbage bins where citizens could dispose of their waste in an environmentally-friendly way with different bins for paper, plastic and bottles.

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"Le Hunte looks to recycling"

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