The Mayor and City Council will next week begin consultations with the business community to map out a new approach to garbage collection and disposal systems, in light of the high cost for the services to the city.
Consultations will begin on Monday, April 3, 2017, at City Hall, Town Clerk Royston King said in a press release yesterday.
According to the release, the city council spends about $2.5 million to collect and dispose of 290 tonnes of waste on a daily basis, and a substantial portion of the waste is generated by businesses and commercial entities operating in the city and even beyond.
“However, given the wide range of services provided by council to local communities and its very narrow revenue base, this situation is unsustainable; council would not be able to continue this service at current levels with its limited resources,” it added.
As a result, the release said business leaders and other stakeholders are invited to participate in the formulation of a new approach to treat with the city’s waste in efficient and effective manner in a way that would not compromise the public health of local communities and the city as a whole. This includes: environmental awareness and education, recycling, reusing, composting, rethinking and reviewing collection of commercial and industrial waste.
In recent times, the council had to negotiate with private garbage collectors Puran Brothers Disposal and Cevons Waste Management to get them to continue operations after they threatened to suspend services due to hundreds of millions owed to them by the city. Currently, the council has an outstanding payment for both companies in the range of $200 million.
This year, the council budgeted $298 million for garbage collection and disposal.
