Mandeville tackles garbage woes
Published:Sunday | February 12, 2017 | 2:46 PMJason Cross
Blame for Mandeville's deplorable solid waste management conditions has been cast, by some, on the area's business community that is accused of improperly laying out garbage in piles in front of their establishments.
Mandeville stakeholders voiced their concerns on the issue recently during a Gleaner Municipal Corporation forum.
"The way the business community treats with solid waste is atrocious. [Recently], I was in the town after
1 a.m. and the way the business community in Mandeville [disposes of] their garbage is to have it scattered at the front of their business places," said Sheldon Smith, public-cleansing manager at SPM Waste Management Limited, which operates in the town.
Edward Muir, regional operations manager of SPM Waste Management Limited, admitted that Mandeville is currently in a bad state and has vowed that he and his team will do all that is possible to solve the problem.
He did not pinpoint businesses as the root cause of the mess in the town but outlined some issues being faced. According to Muir, inefficient and insufficient trucks prevent the authority from executing reliable services.
"Garbage is in a bad light right now, and we are doing everything possible to fix that. We are currently reviewing our structure going forward - from bottom to top. I reviewed the way our sweepers operate in the town, and we now are taking steps to ensure that when our sweepers sweep the town, all the garbage is containerised properly so no animals can get to it to tear up the bags. We sent out proposals to our executive director two weeks ago, and he has assured us that come the new financial year, we will be getting additional resources to deal with that," Muir said.