RESIDENTS of Kingston Western on Friday expressed gratitude to the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) for dedicating two days to ridding their environs of tons of bulky waste and garbage.

“They did a wonderful job. They made the place feel free and nice. All of the rubbish and cars that were blocking up the roads which made us couldn’t see, they cleared it up. We can see better now. People have more space to walk, and there are fewer hazards now on the roadside; we can use the sidewalk now instead of walking in the road,” one male resident told the Jamaica Observer on Friday morning as the NSWMA crew continued the agency’s clean-up effort under its Pass di Broom islandwide waste removal campaign.

Another man said it was “a good look” and expressed hope that other parts of the island will benefit from similar exercises.

“This is a proper thing. This needs to happen everywhere in Jamaica, but West Kingston is a start. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and a lot of people don’t know that. It’s God at work. They need to start cleaning the gullies now,” the man said.

One business operator said he was pleased with the scope of work carried out by the NSWMA team between Thursday and Friday, and suggested that similar exercises occur more often.

“I feel good about it, man. I give them a lot of respect for that. We don’t like to see the garbage. We want to go the clean way too. We appreciate what they did from Thursday and wouldn’t mind if they come every week,” the businessman told the Observer.

One woman agreed.

“They must come more often. We have rubbish every day. We don’t have anywhere to throw rubbish so they need to come and collect the rubbish all the time,” she said.

At the end of Thursday, NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon indicated that 40 truckloads of bulky waste — including old refrigerators and sofas, 12 truckloads of residential waste, and 25 derelict vehicles — were removed from the streets of downtown, Kingston. He said also 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.

The Pass di Broom campaign, which was launched in March 2025, is geared at encouraging residents to play their role in keeping their environment clean so as to complement the work carried out by the NSWMA.