NEWS IN BRIEF

The 50 new garbage trucks that landed in Jamaica last weekend are expected to hit the road by December 1.

That confirmation came yesterday from Audley Gordon, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

Gordon told The Sunday Gleaner that he expects this to result in a 50 per cent drop in complaints.

The Shacman trucks were received by vehicle dealership Tank-Weld on Friday and are undergoing final checks, which should be completed in about six more days, said Gordon.

The trucks are expected to significantly boost the NSWMA’s capacity for collection amid an islandwide lament about pile-ups of garbage.

NSWMA’s currently has a “ball-park” fleet of 100 trucks on the ground, approximately 45 of which are government-owned.

But Gordon has sought to temper optimism, noting that the injection of vehicles will not be a silver bullet for the country’s garbage woes.

“Fifty new trucks will not solve the problem, but will help us tremendously. ... We won’t be out of the woods,” he said.

Western Parks and Markets Management Limited, one of the NSWMA’s regional bodies, announced earlier this month that it is expecting to receive at least 10 trucks. But Gordon cautioned that the final decision on truck allocation will be made after a meeting tomorrow, once the data is analysed.

He said, however, that the trucks will be adequately spread across the various regions.

The executive director said that another 50 garbage trucks are expected to be procured in the 2023-24 fiscal year.