ROCKY POINT, Clarendon — Regional operations manager for Southern Parks and Markets (SPM) Waste Management Edward Muir says a recently launched recycling programme in the parish will be expanded to other coastal communities in the southern region.

“We have collaborated with Recycling Partners of Jamaica so what we are doing now is, having launched the project at Rocky Point, we intend to go into Manchester and St Elizabeth with the same project,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“… There is a lot of plastic being littered and also coming onto the landfill that doesn’t need to be on the landfill. A receptacle was put in Rocky Point, and other receptacles are being placed in communities,” he added.

Muir said the separation of recyclables from solid waste will improve SPM’s turnaround time in garbage collection.

“The less waste we collect to go to the landfill, the more space we have in the unit to go into additional communities… We are maintaining our collection schedules now, so what we are trying to do is to encourage residents to separate their waste,” he said.

“Some of the waste include plastic and also the things that we use from the kitchen that can be used for composting. We see a lot of these coming onto the landfill, and if we reduce some of these wastes it will allow us to go into additional communities to do collection,” he explained.

Muir said SPM is targeting coastal communities in the first phase of the recycling programme.

“We intend to expand on what is being done in Treasure Beach and also we intend to go to Alligator Pond. We see a lot of plastic bottles in those areas,” he said.

“After we finish the sea coast we are going to move into the town centres and markets. We are going to put some receptacles in town centres and we are going to [separately] brand them for plastic and regular garbage. We are going to ramp up our public education to have people separating their wastes in the town centres and in the markets,” added Muir.

He said, unlike months ago, there is no pile-up of garbage in the southern region.

“Of the three parishes, we have zero backlog in the region and we intend to keep it that way. With the additional trucks, we have now implemented a shift system in the garage. We always have somebody at the garage to ensure that we have a faster turnaround time for the trucks when they are down,” he said.

Muir, in emphasising the need for people to utilise recycling, said it would reduce waste generation.

“There is a garbage skip down by Alligator Pond that takes no more than 24 hours to be filled. When we check that receptacle we see a lot of waste that doesn’t need to go to the landfill, and that is why it is important to reach people in these communities for them to separate the waste,” he reasoned.

“By collecting less waste in Alligator Pond it would allow us to go into other adjoining areas to meet the demand [for garbage collection],” he added.