The high cost of cover material and equipment rental makes the management of garbage disposal sites an expensive venture which, if not done properly, can lead to fires and other damage to the environment.

Martin’s Hill disposal site in Manchester, unlike the Riverton landfill in Kingston, has access to cover material at the 37.8 hectares of land space leased from Windalco for the operations.

“Maintaining a landfill according to the appropriate standard is a very expensive venture,” explained Garfield Murray, acting regional operations manager at Southern Parks and Market.

“You must have a daily covering for the waste and there are only two ways to get it and that is to mine it from the site, or to transport it from elsewhere,” he said.

He explained that at Martin’s Hill they have been fortunate to have access to the marl at the site, which was previously mined for bauxite.

Landfills where the marl has to be transported from elsewhere, he said, can be quite costly, with the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) having to fork out up to $600 per cubic yard.

But despite having easy access to the marl on location, Murray said the cost of equipment to mine the marl is just as costly.

Market rate for a D8 tractor, which is used in the process, is between $5,000 and $6,000 per hour, while a front-end loader goes for $2,500 to $3,000 per hour.

Despite the high cost, Murray pointed to the importance of having the site covered in layers because if it is not managed correctly, the waste itself could ignite a fire as the garbage collected is commingled.

“When the waste is mixed, Murray explained “there is a whole lot of physo chemical reaction that goes off, especially when it is in a place for a long time.

When waste is breaking down, he explained, it produces letche (a liquid substance which arises from precipitation passing through the waste and decomposition). The letche can become toxic, depending on the type of material.

For letche, he said, there should really be a stabilisation plan and a collection system where it can be treated because most of the waste have some amount of heavy metal and trace elements.

The waste also produces methane, which is similar to cooking gas which, when combined with a hot environment and flammable material, can cause fires.

Although some fires at landfills are started this way, Murray said there have been instances where it was proven that the fires were the work of arsonists. As such, he said this is one of the reasons scavengers are discouraged from the Martin’s Hill site.

“Sometimes people deliberately start the fires because when the fires start you will need some amount of labour, so it is a means of employment,” he said.

In Jamaica, where no emphasis is placed on sorting garbage in households, nearly everything ends up on disposal sites and while this provides a source of income for some persons who recycle materials, it can make the job more challenging for the waste managers.

A recent visit to the Martin’s Hill dump revealed just how challenging this is as scores of non-degradable materials were seen.

But Murray noted that while persons will soon be encouraged to properly sort their waste it will require a lot of resources for this to be effective. First, he said, not only will persons have to be sensitised through an education campaign, but more trucks would be needed to collect different kinds of the waste.

“The trucks may have to have different compartments for specific waste and different facilities or more infrastructure on the sites to handle the waste,” he explained.

Already, he said, there are plans to start the recycling of PET bottles, as a company has just expressed an interest in reviving this project.

He said he recently met with the company, which is in the process of setting up a PET recovery facility for the entire island to purchase the bottles, bale them and ship them to China.

“We have so much PET bottles around the island and it is expensive to landfill them, so we would welcome such an opportunity,” he said.

Meanwhile, Murray also explained that currently the NSWMA is in the process of privatising its operations by contracting private operators to transport waste to disposal sites. Although the SPM currently has 10 trucks in its fleet, it is cheaper, according to Murray, to actually contract the work out to private operators as there are less overhead costs involved.

He said at least 30-35 per cent of waste management is really fleet management and maintenance, which has to do with trucking, haulage logistics and maintenance of vehicles.

“I find it cheaper, then, to have private contractors because there are no overheads as they have to find their own resources and crew members,” he said. “Some of those blue trucks that you see are actually operated by private contractors who lease the trucks from NSWMA.”

While the system has been flowing smoothly, Murray said there are certain checks and balances in place to ensure that persons actually do the work for which they are being paid.

Explaining how it works, Murray said once a trip is done the operator has a ticket book which is signed by the SPM inspector indicating the location, date and other relevant information.

Once the truck gets to the disposal site, the attendant or tally clerk is responsible for countersigning the ticket to ensure that the waste has actually been taken to the site.

Murray said this system had become important to enforce after some persons attempted to scam the agency to get paid twice for the trip. “Some people would collect the waste and dump it in a bush,” he said. “Then, because we have a mini dump programme they would go and collect it again and get paid for it twice.”

browni@jamaicaobserver.com