The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) embarked on a major clean-up mission in downtown Kingston on Thursday, relieving communities of excess rubbish and bulky waste including very old and derelict motor vehicles.

At the end of the day, 40 truck loads of bulky waste, including old refrigerators and sofas, 12 truck loads of residential waste, and 25 derelict vehicles were removed from the streets, NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon told the Jamaica Observer.

Gordon also said that 108 large garbage bags were filled with rubbish from sweeping activities on Upper and Lower Regent streets, Bond Street, Spanish Town Road, Golden Heights, Beeston Street, and North Street.

Gordon explained that the clean-up was part of the agency’s Pass di Broom campaign which was launched in March 2025, and is geared at encouraging residents to not leave the responsibility of proper garbage management up to Government alone.

“Pass di broom is symbolic. We couldn’t pass anything better than a broom. We believe that even as we go forward there are some good things that served us well in the past that we should not abandon. It is still good for us to clean up our space. We shouldn’t have to wait until some outsider comes to tidy up our yard or gate,” Gordon told the Observer.

“I grew up in a Jamaica where people were doing this as a routine. As people wake in the morning, one of the first things done is to sweep up, clean up the space and clean up the house. We believe that is something that is honourable. We used to do our sweeping and we were not coerced. We did not have to wait on any councillor, member of parliament or any Government. It was just the right thing to do,” he said.

“We believe that if everybody would look back a little as we go forward and capture some of the things that were right with Jamaica, with the community and the people, we can change the culture that has evolved in Jamaica where people just throw things through the windows of a car and dump anywhere illicitly. We are working assiduously for a culture shift. What Pass di Broom is doing is kind of providing that opportunity for people to say this is something to latch on to,” Gordon said, while acknowledging that “the culture shift won’t come overnight”.

Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie, who was literally in the trenches on Thursday playing his part and setting an example for the residents of his Kingston Western constituency, said the plan is to spread the campaign across the island.

“The next stop will be the 21st of May in the adjoining constituency of Angela Brown Burke,” he said in reference to St Andrew South Western.

“We intend to take this right across the country. In another couple of weeks, we will be rolling out a list of the various areas that we’ll be going to. I urge the Kingston West residents to containerise their garbage and I have committed to buy garbage bags to help them with that. Some people will not practise proper garbage disposal but this initiative is something that I welcome and is something that has the full support of the Government,” McKenzie said.

He said that four crane trucks were being utilised to remove old abandoned and scrapped motor vehicles from roads and sidewalks.

“One important feature of the exercise is the number of derelict vehicles that are on the roads. These vehicles have been identified and the necessary notices have been placed on them. I am urging the residents to join the process to ensure that we make the area much cleaner,” he said.

“In the constituency, vehicles are abandoned, they scrap them and then leave them there. After today, when you pass out here on Spanish Town Road, you are going to see less of them because we are going to be moving all of them out of the way. It makes the place look ugly.”

McKenzie said that while Kingston Western has seen improvements in garbage collection and disposal, much more can be done.

Gordon said that a town crier used to advise residents of the clean-up effort resulted in a lot of the items being placed on the roads for collection.

He said the NSWMA teams are scheduled to return to the constituency on Friday to collect what they were not able to collect on Thursday.