REGULATIONS will come into effect, as of today, that will give teeth to the almost one-year-old National Solid Waste Management Authority which has responsibility for the regulation and management of the island’s solid waste sector.

The lack of the requisite regulations, according to executive chairman, Alston Stewart, had hampered efforts to get the authority fully off the ground.

“As a result of the absence of these regulations, we could not get our public education campaign going. This would (have) outlined the penalties for littering and so on,” he said.

The National Solid Waste Management (NSWM) Act was passed in 2001, replacing the Litter Act, and laying the foundation for the formation of the authority, which covers not only littering but also has responsibility for areas such as:

* establishing guidelines for the sector;

* setting up collecting zones in collaboration with the island’s parish councils and the KSAC;

* as well as the licensing of waste disposal companies, collection vehicles and disposal site operators.

Now that the regulations are in effect, persons found in breach of the Act can be fined up to $1 million or sent to jail for a maximum of one year.

Meanwhile, according to the authority’s planning manager, Mellisa McHargh, they have already made some progress.

“We have supplemented our fleet to ensure regular collections. In fact, we have received less customer complaints since we’ve been operating,” she said.

“We are now developing a customer service department; we have also closed illegal dump sites to reflect environmentally friendly practices; and we are operating under an Act which is a success within itself,” she added.

And there are now plans in place to increase the efficiency of the solid waste collection system. Stewart told the Observer that 20 garbage compactors will be obtained by the next financial year and another 107 rolling units will also be added to the fleet.

“There is also a material recovery facility to be built at the Riverton disposal site, which will deal with the informal recycling of commercial waste,” the executive chairman said.

Under the Act, the authority may, at a cost, provide persons with receptacles to be used to separate their garbage into different piles such as paper, plastic, glass or biodegradable household rubbish.

This separation is not mandatory and, according to McHargh, there are no immediate plans to change this. They will first have to work at getting the public to see the link between their garbage disposal habits and the environment, she explained.

“We have to solve the existing problem before we can start a door-to-door collection of separated garbage. The mentality of the citizens is such that that would be difficult to do,” she said. “It is not just lower-class citizens but also the man from Jacks Hill who throws his bag into the gully because he cannot see it,” she added.

Oneil Gordon, recycling manager of Garbage Disposal and Sanitation System, was also sceptical of waste separation and recycling coming on-stream any time soon. In some first world countries, recycled garbage is big business but it does not appear that it will be taking off in Jamaica, despite small-scale recycling operations in places like Negril.

“What’s the point of recycling if you don’t have anything to do with it? You are going to end up dumping everything anyway. The other option is to stockpile it but that will use up more space,” Gordon argued.

The Riverton disposal site currently has 60 per cent of the island’s waste, and household garbage accounts for 54 per cent of that figure. According to McHargh, the authority will therefore be focusing their efforts on a campaign to get communities to do backyard composting.

“The authority is heading towards becoming more policy-oriented and moving away from operations. We are going to be looking to overseeing proper management of solid waste by authorised waste haulers and disposals,” she said.