MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Regional operations manager for the Southern Parks and Markets (SPM) Waste Management Limited Edward Muir says the agency has increased its nightly operations working to clear a pile-up of garbage in some communities in Clarendon, Manchester and St Elizabeth.

“Because of the shortage of units (garbage trucks), we had to activate the night operation in some areas where possible to try and alleviate some of the backlog,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

Residents of Alligator Pond in southern Manchester near the St Elizabeth border, and College View on the outskirts of Mandeville, among other communities, were fearful of the risk of rodent infestation in those areas due to a pile-up of garbage in some instance for three weeks.

However, Muir has assured that SPM, which is a subsidiary of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), has been trying to clear garbage with only 12 of the 22 units in its fleet being operational.

“Right now we have 12 units up and running in all three parishes. We expect to get out another two units by Friday, which will bring the numbers up to 14,” he said.

“A part of the challenge we were facing with the backlog is as a result of down units. We are currently waiting on parts to repair some of the down units to have them back in operation as soon as possible,” he added.

Muir explained that SPM needs at least 30 operational units.

“We have some supplementary units on the road as well to assist us, but the truth is we need no less than 30 trucks in the region to have at least once a week collection across all the communities,” he added.

He pointed out that commercial solid waste has increased in recent times.

“The [business] community has enlarged. We see where a lot of businesses are now being in operation. For example, in the May Pen town centre, it takes us no less than three trips per day to clean May Pen town centre,” he said.

Muir added that the Mandeville Town centre requires four truckloads to clear solid waste nightly. He is also reminding people to containerise their solid waste.

“They (people) fail to adhere to the proper containerisation of garbage, so that now delays the operation. Each shift we are working within an eight to ten-hour time frame, so when a truck has to stop at a location to clean an area, we are looking at sometimes between half-hour up to an hour,” he said.

The turnaround time for solid water collection and offloading at disposal sites is further compounded by there being only two sites in the region namely Myersville in St Elizabeth and Martin’s Hill in Manchester.

“All the waste that is generated from Clarendon and Manchester we bring it to Martin’s Hill and for St Elizabeth we bring it to Myersville,” said Muir.

He said the parent company NSWMA has been assessing the possibility of a transfer station in Clarendon.

“…. Where we could find a location to house all the garbage that we collect and then transport that to Manchester. [It] is one operation that I know the executive director Mr [Audley] Gordon is looking at to ease some of the operational time in the Clarendon area,” said Muir.