WITH the management of Jamaica’s solid waste placed squarely on the agenda following the massive fire at the Riverton City dump earlier this month, pledges to develop projects that will turn waste into energy and jobs in the near future have once again been made.

The governing People’s National Party (PNP), through Minister of Local Government Noel Arscott, says waste-to-energy projects will form a part of the mitigation strategy at the dump.

Speaking in the House of Representatives on Valentine’s Day, Arscott said activities at the dump would include “recycling, waste separation, and waste exporting or waste-to-energy projects”, government news arm the Jamaica Information Service reported.

However, no timeline was given for the commencement of these activities or the budget required.

But last week, Arscott indicated that a number of jobs would be created through the much-touted Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) for persons hustling on the dump.

These persons would be employed in retrieving valuable parts from equipment, such as computers disposed of at the dump.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it is committed to the recycling of waste and was far advanced with a project to turn waste to energy at Riverton before being voted out of office last December.

Senator Robert Montague, a former minister with responsibility for local government, said the JLP administration was in negotiations with a company from Belgium about the project when the elections intervened.

He said the project involved the mining of methane gas, which builds up under the ground from the garbage. It is this gas which fuels fires at

the dump that can burn for weeks if not extinguished.

“We were advanced in setting up the waste-to-energy programme where we would mine that gas to produce 60 megawatts of energy. We had gone to tender and selected a preferred bidder,” Montague said at a JLP press conference earlier this month.

He said the Belgian entity wanted to build a similar facility at the dump in Retirement in St James.

The party’s spokesman on local government, Desmond McKenzie, said the Opposition was committed to implementing a programme of separation of different types of garbage.

“The Opposition will be advocating for the separation of garbage collection so that you don’t continue to get the same result [of a fire],” the former mayor of Kingston noted.

He added that a system of separation of garbage has been successful implemented at the Coronation Market in downtown Kingston.

Also speaking at the press conference, Leader of the Opposition Andrew Holness noted that the former government had started work on an e-waste policy governing how electronic waste is disposed of.

He noted that the recovery of valuable materials in computers and other appliances, such as gold and cadmium is a growing industry in some countries.