ST JAMES, Jamaica (JIS) — Residents of Norwood in St James now have a designated area to dispose of their garbage, where it can be collected and taken to the dump site.

The St James Municipal Corporation, in conjunction with the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), officially opened the disposal facility yesterday.

Mayor Homer Davis explained that the project started on Labour Day, May 23. “What you are seeing here now is the culmination of the project. This is now an area for garbage storage and where it will be collected by the NWSMA and taken to the dump,” he said.

“There is… no excuse for persons to be throwing things along the roadway,” he added.

Davis informed that garbage will be collected three times per week, and that there will be “zero-tolerance” as it relates to littering.

“If you dispose of your garbage in a container and leave it at your gate, then that’s different… . The truck can pick it up in an orderly manner. However, if you just throw things along the roadway, then I promise that you will be prosecuted if caught,” he said.

The mayor noted that while a number of persons have been prosecuted by way of a ticket system, “we will now go even further by exposing, via the media, persons who we have prosecuted for throwing garbage on the streets. I am sure if we start exposing people, they will think twice about doing those sorts of thing”.

Davis said the Norwood initiative will be replicated in other communities, noting that the objective is to keep the parish clean.

“We have to ensure our communities are welcoming and that we don’t have these kind of environmental hazards. Residents have to lead from the front, and insist that garbage is disposed properly and we don’t have people doing as they please and with no regard for their community,” he said.