National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) Executive Director Audley Gordon says the entity is investigating the illegal dumping of garbage on a plot of land on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston.

“It’s unfortunate that as a people, we have to be battling this monster of illegal dumping. It happens far too wide and is right across the country,” Gordon told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

The NSWMA boss was responding to an Observer Online video, recorded on Wednesday afternoon, which showed a tipper truck dumping what appeared to be a load of garbage on an open plot of land at the intersection of Marcus Garvey Drive and Industrial Terrace. He noted that such incidents are recurring despite measures taken by the authority to make garbage disposal easily accessible.

“We have made it easy for people to dispose responsibly by keeping the fees extremely low at our disposal site for tipping,” Gordon said.

“Oftentimes people who dump illegally, we have seen where they would have gotten the fees to put the garbage at the disposal site but they use their own desire to change the system,” he continued. “They will go and dispose of it illegally instead of just paying the fee and getting the thing done properly.”

Noting that it is challenging for the authorities to police illegal dumping islandwide, Gordon said eyewitness reports from the public are “very, very helpful”.

“We want the public to know that just by simply taking a picture or video and sending it to us, we will act on it,” Gordon said.

“You don’t have to have your communities being defaced by illegal dumps. You don’t have all the rodents and the different new cells that can come from it. Everything is a win-win when it’s done properly,” he added, noting that reports can easily be made via the NSWMA app available in the Google Play Store, the NSWMA website (nswma.gov.jm) and the agency’s toll free number 1-888-253-2652.