The government must show leadership on solid waste management

Dec 01, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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Georgetown – once called a garden city, on account of its municipal gardens, grass parapets, tree-lined canals, ornate bridges and historic wooden architecture – is under threat.
Knolls of rubbish have disfigured the urban and rural landscape like gangrenous abscesses. Builders waste, carrion, damaged vehicles and discarded tyres encumber roadsides and sidewalks. Garbage clogs canals flowing into the harbour, floats along the Demerara River and litters the riverbanks.
Guyana has a grotesque garbage problem. Every part of the country, not only Georgetown, is affected by the crisis. Georgetown alone must find economically sustainable ways to dispose of approximately 250 tonnes of residential and commercial waste every day. The other five towns and 65 neighbourhoods have smaller but similar problems.
The landmark World Bank study – What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management (2012) – suggested that global, urban solid waste among developing countries – in particular those that lack financial resources and institutional capacity and are unable to keep up with the quantity and cost of increased garbage disposal – is likely to increase by 70 per cent by 2025. This is a challenge to the Guyana Government which cannot be shunted to regional and municipal local government councils.
Solid waste management is the single, most important service that town and neighbourhood councils – from Corriverton to Charity – are required to provide to their residents. The collection, processing and disposal of rubbish, also, is often the largest budgetary item of expenditure, and one of the largest employers of labour for municipalities.
Waste disposal in Guyana, up to a few decades ago, seemed to be manageable. Household waste then was made up mostly of natural and degradable materials which could be disposed of by burying, burning or thrown out as scraps to feed domestic animals. Lifestyles have changed over the years. Many townsfolk and villagers have entered the modern economy and adopted new consumption habits for reasons of convenience, cost or choice.
Younger populations, changing tastes and the attraction of fast, fashionable foreign foods and apparel have changed the composition of domestic rubbish by both volume and variety over the past two decades. Households now routinely throw rubbish onto parapets or into the canals or rivers.
The use of ‘throw-away’ materials, such as disposable baby napkins, plastic bottles and party furniture, styrofoam food boxes and novelties has soared. Traditional hand-made ‘nibbi’ shopping baskets have yielded to lightweight plastic bags. Electronic equipment and battery-operated toys and gadgets are frequently easier to replace than to repair. These changes have resulted in a sharp increase in solid material waste and a correspondingly steep decrease in organic waste.
Industrial and commercial corporations generate much of today’s garbage. The massive importation of used tyres, second-hand equipment, re-conditioned vehicles and non-bio-degradable products have contributed to both the volume of rubbish and the problem of disposal. Gold-mining and logging camps in the hinterland are sustained largely by manufactured imports, and waste is invariably abandoned on mined-out sites.
The central government may not be responsible for the wasteful ways of its citizens but, unless it demonstrates leadership in the war on waste, it will be difficult to change public attitudes and behaviour.
A start can be made by designing a comprehensive, national Solid Waste Management Plan with clear targets, techniques and timelines for waste reduction. Such a Plan, as suggested by the World Bank study, must aim “to reduce, reuse, recycle, or recover as much waste as possible before burning it (and recovering the energy) or otherwise disposing of it. Measuring the extent of the problem is a critical first step to resolving it.”
Not much of  Guyana’s residential waste is currently sorted, except by the motley crew of ‘pickers’ who comb rubbish heaps and landfills. Few incentives are offered for recycled materials even by industrial and commercial corporations which generate nearly most of the country’s rubbish.
Municipal markets, farms, restaurants, schools and the hospitality industry in towns and neighbourhoods generate millions of dollars of waste – including a large quantity of vegetable waste – every day. The use of bio-digesters can convert ‘useless’ agricultural and municipal waste into methane and ‘useful’ low-grade organic fertilizers for farming.  Methane gas generated by garbage landfills can be saved to be used as fuel. Recycling plants for plastics and cardboard can also create employment.
The Solid Waste Management Plan must set specific targets to reduce the level of waste; to recycle solid waste; to mandate the selective sorting of waste and to restrict the use of biodegradable waste for landfills. Much of this can be achieved by a determined government by 2020.
Effective solid waste management is possible and practical. It requires collaboration among the central government, municipal authorities, corporations and citizens –to promulgate the plan, to implement and enforce the policies, to manage imports, production and sales and, most difficult of all, to alter tastes and reduce household waste.
The government must show leadership, produce sensible plans and build partnerships to manage solid waste, if the giant monster of garbage is to be tamed.

 

 

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