For the second time this week, crews from the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) faced challenges while collecting household waste yesterday.
Public relations officer, Carl “Alff” Padmore, said householders were now mixing in the ash from La Soufriere with their household waste, which was posing a problem for loaders.
“We went back out today (yesterday) and encountered some problems on the road, but there was a little more cooperation from the motorists. What we have discovered is that persons are trying to co-mingle the ash with household waste. When the ash gets hard, it is posing a problem for our compacter trucks because it gets hard like cement. We are begging persons not to do this,” he told the DAILY NATION.
He added crews had also recognised people were not following the advised protocols when removing the ash.
“They’re putting it in garbage bags. It is supposed to go in crocus bags or feed bags. When people use garbage bags, the ash is falling right through and it is asking our fellas to do double work,” he said.
The SSA, National Conservation Commission and Ministry of Transport Works and Water Resources had committed to collecting the discarded ash from householders, once properly bagged, on their open back trucks. While MTW had begun collection, Padmore said the SSA had not started just yet.
Padmore also warned businesses, private pre-schools and schools preparing to reopen, not to dispose of their bulk waste with their household waste.
“A lot of them are putting a lot of bulk waste on the outside. They need to either get their own transport and take it to the landfill, or call SSA’s commercial department. It is really putting a strain on what we’re doing. We’re picking up the household waste and then you’re asking us to put that inside there as well,” he said. (RA)
