Dear Editor,
The current ‘garbage’ crisis in Georgetown goes well beyond the piles of foetid trash lining the streets of fair Georgetown. Yes, the health, environmental, aesthetic and flooding concerns generated by the recent and regular municipal services meltdowns might well be top-of-mind. Everyone is responsible, however, for a solution to the escalating garbage crisis in Guyana. Fixing the problem rests squarely on the shoulders of all Guyanese – individuals, the private sector, non-government groups and governments alike. Attitudes must change before the streetscapes will.
As a foreigner, I’m struck by the utter disdain with which many residents treat this beautiful country. Too many Guyanese simply do not take responsibility for the waste they generate. Sorry, but this is an attitude problem. This attitude, and the behaviours it spawns, are evident daily as one witnesses bottles flying out of speeding minibuses and styrofoam containers being indiscriminately tossed into trenches.
Certainly, there is substantially more waste being generated today in Guyana than in earlier days. Times were simpler that day thirty years ago when you filled your bin. No flood of plastic and paper packaging then, no sea of beverage containers in those days, no deluge of plastics and metals and organic wastes that now overwhelm Guyana.
What is needed is an overhaul of the national legislation and policies governing wastes of all kinds in Guyana. A massive and sustained educational campaign, supplemented by some judiciously applied enforcement. Some well thought-out recycling programmes are a must too. Establishing effective institutional capacity to manage the building and implementation of a sustainable nation waste framework is also paramount. All of this can happen, believe it or not.
In many jurisdictions, various types of waste are diverted from disposal and turned into useful products. Did you know you can make a roofing shingle out a plastic bottle? Were you aware that chopped up tyres can be used to build roads? In many places, these materials can be reused or recycled into new products. How about that… waste being turned into a resource that could create new jobs?
In Nova Scotia, Canada, for example, 3200 jobs were created over a five-year period sorting, transporting and processing materials diverted from landfill. Between 1995 and 2000 Nova Scotia reduced its waste by 50% through reuse and recycling. Many other jurisdictions around the globe, and some right here within Caricom, are making important strides too.
Responsible waste management has a number of very positive results. Firstly, the amount of waste that needs to be disposed of is reduced, requiring less landfill space. This saves space and money. Secondly, the diverted materials, such as paper, plastic or tyres become available as resources. Resources by very definition have value. Thirdly, the health and environmental concerns associated with improperly disposed of waste are reduced because there is less waste being produced. What is being disposed of is being disposed of properly.
The Georgetown garbage situation will doubtless be alleviated when the Mayor and City Council are once again bailed out by a government holding its nose for reasons other than the smell of garbage. Guyana as a country, however, is a long way from fixing the ongoing garbage malaise that afflicts it. Guyana will be clean when every Guyanese citizen demonstrates personal responsibility by disposing of waste in the bin, or better yet recycling it, and not leaving it for someone else.
Guyana will be ‘green’ when governments take a leadership role and set up the legislation, programmes and infrastructure residents need to manage their own waste. Guyana will be cleaned up one piece of litter at a time.
A truly developed country deals with its wastes in a responsible and sustainable fashion. Much can be achieved if the will exists. While building a new landfill is a start it is but one piece of a complex solution. Note that Trinidad and Tobago has recently begun to grapple with the seemingly intractable problem of waste management. Progress is now being made. Guyana could do it too.
Yours faithfully,
Craig Morrison
