Contractors dumping garbage outside landfills

Due to the lack of a central authority for waste management, some garbage contractors have been dumping waste outside the landfills in order to make extra trips, says Trinidad and Tobago Solid Waste Management Company Ltd (SWMCOL) CEO Ronald Roach.

He was speaking on Friday at the Joint Select Committee Finance and Legal Affairs meeting with representatives of SWMCOL, Planning Ministry and Public Utilities Ministry.

He said as far back as 1979 there was a recommendation for a single central authority with responsibility for overall waste management and studies in 1996, 2000 and 2014 all said the same thing.

"The answer is clear - there is still need for a central single authority."

He said the various agencies continue to have problems and work together in little pockets but any improvements were incremental. Roach explained regional corporations do not have the expertise with waste management for simple things like route management which would increase efficiency. He said a central authority would have authority over waste collection and would supervise municipal corporations to ensure objectives were met, routes were properly planned, collection service is done as scheduled, and waste ends up in a landfill or a recycling area.

"Right now there is no oversight of that function. If a contractor chooses to dump waste in Carlsen Field there is very little follow up and certainly no penalties for that contractor. And that sometimes is the unfortunate modus operandi of some contractors because they want to make two trips when they should be making one and instead of reaching the landfill they just empty it."

He said a waste management authority would be able to regulate this activity. He added SWMCOL has continued to operate without this central authority but there is only so much the company can do.

Roach recalled in the 1990s SWMCOL, operating as a consultant, went to Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States countries and made a recommendation for the implementation of solid waste systems, including the setting up of an authority, and since that time these authorities were established and they all function in the manner which SWMCOL would like this country's system to function.

"We have been able to set up those systems in other countries but in our country that does not exist."

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"Contractors dumping garbage outside landfills"

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