WPM manager urges proper ash disposal after Retirement landfill blaze

WESTERN BUREAU: Dramaine Jones, regional operations manager at the National Solid Waste Management Authority’s (NSWMA) Western Parks and Markets Limited (WPM), is pressing residents to handle refuse more carefully so leftover burnt material does not spark blazes.

Jones spoke with The Gleaner last Friday after a fire broke out at the Retirement landfill in St James early Thursday. The blaze, now under control, is said to have begun where newly deposited rubbish had been placed.

“It is typical at this time of year where you have persons who will have their outdoor barbecue, and they would have lit coals that would have been placed in their fires. While we train our teams to really look for stuff like this, it is not a guarantee that you will catch all of them, and whenever you have the wind and the dry conditions, it is almost the perfect storm,” said Jones.

“If you have your backyard barbecue, please try to dispose of the ashes properly, and do not mix them in with the regular waste, because right then and there you may be causing a fire hazard or sending a fire to the disposal site. Also, you must ensure that persons bag the waste properly, remove plastics where possible, see how best you can use garden cuttings to make compost; and if you see illegal dumping, please report it,” Jones added.

YEARS OF NUISANCE

Fires have hit the Retirement landfill repeatedly over the years, dating to 2013. People living in Retirement and adjoining districts have long objected to the smoke and the breathing difficulties that can linger for days afterward.

In April 2024, NSWMA Executive Director Audley Gordon asked residents to help keep the disposal facility in order and stressed that careful garbage handling is essential.

On illegal dumping and poor disposal practices — long-running headaches in St James — Jones cautioned that tougher enforcement is on the way to curb people dumping refuse wherever they please. He said sites at Norwood, Mt Salem, Sun Valley Road and elsewhere in the parish are cleared regularly, yet bulky items, household trash and commercial refuse keep turning up there unlawfully.

“There are persons who are able to access the disposal site and move their waste there, but they go to the nearest lonely spot on the road and just drop it off. Persons should be reminded that fines are coming and they will not be pretty, and when they are caught, these persons will be dealt with properly,” said Jones.

“There has been some reviews of the legislation, and increased fines are coming. Because right now the fine is up to $10,000 per instance, and if you go to court, you can be fined up to $1 million. But persons do not take it seriously, and that is why we have to be getting harsher, to ensure that persons really comply and understand that you do not need to illegally dump waste,” Jones continued.

Calls for heavier penalties to discourage unlawful dumping go back at least to February 2024, when Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie argued that lasting progress depends on residents changing how they behave.