M&CC reinforce its composting programme

— littering by-laws seek to impose fine on persons caught littering

— M&CC has cleaned approximately 80% of the city’s central business district

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, August 7, 2019

The residents of the capital city will soon have the opportunity to be part of the critical process of composting. This follows the recent launch of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC)’s composting programme for youths.

Walter Narine, the Director of the Solid Waste Management Committee, explained that as the council continues to improve the city’s management of solid waste, they often face the issue of citizens disposing of tree trimmings on parapets. This, Narine said, not only creates obstructions for persons using the roadways but for the removal process is costly for the council. “Initially, when we removed bulky tree trimmings, we would put these into a skip bin or a garbage truck; however, this would damage the truck. Therefore, the municipality decided to invest in two shredders. These are garden shredders which will shred wood, shrubs and tree trimmings and complement our composting project.”

In this regard, Narine is advising citizens not to use horse-driven carts to transport their tree trimmings to the municipal’s landfill. He reasoned that these are not permitted as it leads to waste inadvertently being returned to the streets daily.

“I do not think that many of our citizens know that these horse-driven carts are not accepted into landfills. It is something that we have to educate the citizenry to desist from… They can contact the municipality to rent one of our skip bins for the minimum cost of $5,000 for 72 hours and have their solid waste transported in an environmentally safe manner to the landfill,” he added.

Also, Narine noted that the council had cleaned approximately 80% of the central business district over the past months. This also saw the Solid Waste and Engineers’ departments clearing several dumpsites in the city. However, reinforced efforts will need to be set in place to clean the remaining 20 per cent of the city’s district.

According to the director, the M&CC plans to implement the littering by-laws, later this year, which will impose immediate fines on persons caught in the act of littering. Under the proposed regulations, Narine explained that the penalties would range from $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the size of the improperly disposed items.

The director underscored that persons need to adopt a different approach to the disposal of their solid waste if the country is to achieve the goals outlined in the ‘Green Agenda’.