During a site visit to the Haags Bosch Landfill at Eccles, East Bank Demerara on Friday last, the Communities Ministry, along with the administration of the city dumpsite, indicated that Guyana would soon take on a more eco-friendly waste disposal system. The new approach is aimed at ensuring better management of waste coming from Georgetown and its environs while providing an environmentally friendly approach, especially in reducing the space used at the disposal site.
The introduction of this new system will mirror that which already exists in North America and other developed countries, comprising garbage separation at the source, systematic transportation and handling as well as composting and other organic approaches once the waste has been offloaded at the dumpsites.
This announcement was made by Minister within the Communities Ministry, Dawn Hastings, while accompanying a team on the visit on Friday. Hastings said the Government has adapted a “Green generation Guyana vision”, which primarily incorporates educating the younger generation with regard to separation of waste within their homes, schools, and communities. This is in accordance with her “Stop, think and store,” campaign.
As such, the Minister pointed out, “We have to think about what happens after we store that garbage. We can’t just have one garbage truck come into these homes because we’re encouraging you to separate your garbage at home.”
On that note, the environmental activist went on to say, “Maybe we’ll have to come up with two separate trucks; one to collect the organic waste and another to follow or we may need to come up with another system where we collect the scrap system twice a week or twice a month. But we have to find and put systems in place.”
Adding to the recommendations relayed by the Minister was the Site Supervisor of the Haags Bosch Landfill, Lloyd Stanton, who also underlined that his team was working towards enhancing the operations currently existing at the East Bank Demerara facility. “Ultimately, we want to restore this site to a sanitary landfill state, where we will have composting, proper waste separation; we’re looking at separation at source, and then we are hoping to get the leaching treatment on board. The leaching treatment facility is currently in construction,” Stanton posited.
Adding to the incorporation of the composting and leaching system, the site’s management is working towards heightening the ongoing efforts, such as shredding and recycling.
With the implementation of these eco-friendly measures, the waste density at the Haags Bosch landfill will reduce by 40 per cent, increasing the capacity of the dumpsite, which allows for disposal operations up to twice the number of years initially intended.
As such, the Communities Ministry and the administration of Haags Bosch are calling on citizens to get in line with waste separation within their homes and communities, which will assist in the plans to enhance the disposal systems, taking on a more eco-friendly approach. This simply involves the separation of bio-degradable and non-biodegradable waste products, which is set to be disposed of through the employment of different methods.
While an exact timeline was not presented for the commencement of this initiative, works continue at the Haags Bosch Landfill to prepare for “green generation” waste disposal and management system.
