THE National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) last month launched a garbage collection initiative which it hopes will eventually eliminate the problem of illegal dumping in the island’s commercial districts.

The programme has so far been implemented in downtown Kingston where 30 businesses have signed on, and in Bog Walk, Linstead and Ewarton in St Catherine where 55 businesses have taken up the offer, NSWMA’s director of enforcement and compliance, Andre Wiltshire, told the Observer.

Under the programme, the NSWMA will collect refuse from businesses without a private collection agreement in place. The downtown businesses will pay a collection fee of $4,000 per month while those in St Catherine will pay fees of $2,000, Wiltshire said. Collection will be made twice per week.

According to Wiltshire, the programme is in response to the high incidence of illegal dumping in downtown Kingston and other business districts. In those cases, Wiltshire said, the businesses without proper garbage collection arrangements would pay handcart men to get rid of their garbage. These handcart men would, however, dump the collected garbage on private property or along the roadway, creating a mess. Wholesale operators were said to be the main offenders.

“We are not undertaking this initiative to generate money. We are doing it because it’s a necessity,” he told the Observer, adding that the programme would be gradually expanded islandwide.

On Friday, he assured that there were enough garbage trucks to service the areas identified.

The programme is estimated to cost the agency $900,000 per year, said Wiltshire. He was, however, unable to say how much money the programme would generate.