KINGSTON, Jamaica — The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) will be focusing on composting household waste for National Solid Waste Day on June 6.

Executive Director of the NSWMA, Audley Gordon, said that the objective is to foster a culture of composting in Jamaica, in order to reduce the amount of waste generated for disposal.

“All our studies, including our recent garbage characterisation study, show that over 60 per cent of our garbage is compostable, which means that it could be broken down and used even around the house to provide fertiliser for your flower bed or kitchen gardens,” he said.

“Just cast your mind to that 60 per cent not being put out for a truck to collect. We would have a smaller amount of garbage, we would need fewer trucks, it would be easier to manage overall and it would then be beneficial to the economy. There is good productive use that we can put the compostables to,” he noted.

Gordon was speaking at a JIS Think Tank yesterday, where he announced the agency’s week-long plans for National Solid Waste Day under the theme ‘Compost before you dispose’.

The day is part of National Environmental Awareness Week from June 2 to 8.

Activities will begin with a church service at the Ridgemount United Church, Manchester, on Sunday, June 2, and include an Expo on National Solid Waste Day at the Cecil Charlton Park in Mandeville, Manchester.

The week will end with a Family Fun Day for staff of the NSWMA’s four operational regions on Saturday, June 8.

Throughout the week, NSWMA community relations officers will visit schools and communities islandwide to share information on what is compostable, the benefits of composting, and how to create compost heaps.

“We will be taking the message across the length and breadth of Jamaica in such a frontal way that it will be difficult for anyone in Jamaica not to know or to understand composting after this solid waste week,” Gordon said.

“This message of composting, we believe, is a very important message and if we get it right, that alone would solve a huge problem for us in terms of storage and transporting solid waste,” he added.