WHAT DO I DO WITH THE CIGARETTE BUTT?

Aug 13, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The city has always had a problem with garbage collection. Before the advent of private garbage collectors, bonfires could be frequently seen within Georgetown.
These bonfires were the means that citizens used to get rid of their garbage which was being infrequently picked up. It was not a good sight and this was more than twenty years ago.
There used to be a time when the city operated its own fleet of garbage trucks. It also had its own municipal workshop where the vehicles were repaired. But during the eighties, many of the vehicles were laid up simply because there was no foreign exchange available to buy spares. Then there could be no replacement for the fleet and the level of service as a consequence suffered.
As a result people took to burning of their garbage. There was hardly a day that a bonfire could not be seen alight in the city. It was an unsightly scene, one that represented the decline in which the city had fallen.
It is in this context of the inability of the city to provide basic garbage collection services that the introduction of private garbage collectors must be seen. These private waste disposal companies have provided an invaluable service to the city and it seems a bit unfair that now the city is going to discard them or at least reduce the need for them by establishing its own fleet.
The city should seriously consider this step. These private contractors are not making a “jewel and a crown”. They are reportedly only making on average less than $80 per rubbish bin. The city may feel that it can collect its own garbage for less, but it needs to re-examine the math.
Not only will it have to purchase its own fleet of vehicles (some of these has already been purchased) but it will have to maintain these vehicles. This means having its own workshop or contracting out the repairs. When a vehicle has to go for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, that vehicle is down. There has to be a replacement. This replacement may not be available.
With private contractors, the council does not have to take on these headaches. The private company has to provide a service and it will do so.
With its own fleet, council also has to employ its own workers, including drivers and refuse disposers. These persons have to be placed on the establishment and paid salaries. Their performance has to be monitored and records kept of their attendance at work and the number of hours they work. Supervisors have to be appointed, and arrangements have to be made for placing them on the pension plan of deducting taxes and NIS and keeping personnel records. All of this entails devoting critical resources.
Is the Council going to be able to do all of these things and yet provide a service cheaper than the private garbage collectors. That is very much doubtful.
Where is the council going to find workers? It is not as if there are persons lining up to become garbage collectors. Labourers are hard to find and they do not come cheap. There are some of them who make it known that they are working for less that $3,500 per day and they are not prepared to work on Saturdays and Sundays.
Council should therefore rethink this decision to move towards collecting its own garbage. It may end up costing them twice as much as what it is costing them now, and at present they can hardly pay their contractors on time, much less to find more money in the future to run their fleet of vehicles.
Instead of phasing out the private collectors, the council should supplement the services being provided as well as offer specialized services.
In colonial Guyana, apart from household waste, there used to be a special service for garden waste. Therefore if you weeded your yards (in those days not many people had lawn mowers and there were no brush cutters), you could place your garden waste outside and the council would have a trailer pick it up, free of cost. This service needs to be reintroduced.
Then we have builders’ waste. The council can make a fair deal of money by opting to pick up builders’ waste for a fee. It would avoid, also, persons dumping rubbish all over the place.
Just as how the city will now have traffic wardens, the council needs to have refuse wardens to go around and ensure that persons are not dumping rubbish all over the place. There are laws against littering, yet rubbish can be seen being thrown from vehicles, and our canals are overflowing with litter.
Yet if you are seen throwing a cigarette butt into the gutters along Regent Street, you can be arrested by the ever vigilant city constabulary. So where does one dispose of cigarette butts. You cannot dispose of them in garbage bins, you will cause a fire. Persons should not be harassed for disposal of their cigarettes butts in safe areas.
In fact, given the wholesale dumping of rubbish that is taking place on council’s reserves and parapets, it seems a bit odd that someone should be arrested for disposing a cigarette butt.

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