THE moment I get off the water taxi at Stabroek Market in the morning, it is impossible for me to get Pete Seeger’s popular folk song “Garbage, Garbage, Garbage” out of my head. Seeger first sang the hit song on the eve of the first Earth Day in 1970 and it remains a popular environmental anthem today.

Many of Georgetown’s constituencies are reeking of garbage. Instead of tackling the problem head on, the Mayor of Georgetown singled out Guyana Waste Solutions (GWS) and its owner Lennox Cush, a former professional cricketer, as being responsible for the city’s garbage crisis.
Last week, Mentore told News Source Guyana that GWS “has repeatedly failed to meet its contractual obligation” and he threatened to “bring out the wild cane” against the company. He told News Source “that GWS has been repeatedly warned about its poor performance and it is now for the full Council to decide on whether it will terminate at least one of the five contracts awarded to GWS.”

GWS is contracted to remove garbage in five of the City’s 15 constituencies. Two contractors – Puran Brothers Inc., Sand-Dip Disposal Services – have contracts to clear one constituency each. Cevons Waste Management has contracts to clear five constituencies and the City takes responsibility to clear garbage in the remaining three.

A day after singling out GWS and Cush (August 8), Mentore was again at the blame game. This time, he told News Source that businesses in the city were the culprits for dumping their garbage indiscriminately and not having “a better garbage plan” or “proper garbage receptacles to match the magnitude of their businesses.”

In the world of Mentore, everyone except M&CC is to be blamed for the City’s garbage disposal crisis. There is no need to cite chapter and verse of the country’s environmental laws to recognise that heaps of garbage is bad news for public health, not only for residents of Georgetown, but for Guyanese everywhere in the country.

Untreated waste can attract rodents, insects and pests which leads to infectious diseases such as hepatitis, cholera and leptospirosis. When residents are forced to burn uncollected garbage it releases toxic fumes exposing people to a range of respiratory diseases such as asthma.

According to Councillor Steven Jacobs, the bulk of the problem happens to be in the city’s commercial zone – Regent and Robb streets.
“Oftentimes you have one property with multiple businesses and all of them are generating tons of garbage. For example, M&CC need to ensure that businesses that produce large amounts of garbage pay for the use of a compactor,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs says M&CC is aware that some business owners tip vagrants to collect their garbage only to have it dumped in the commercial zone, making it GWS’ problem.”

Jacobs is miffed that the Mayor had blamed Cush’s GWS for the city’s garbage crisis, and cited the fact that the City owes Cush millions of dollars for months of completed contractual work. When I spoke with Cush he said he believed he was targeted because of his “affiliation with the current government.” And said he didn’t want to make an issue over the unpaid dues owed to him. I asked another City official and he confirmed that it is well over $30 million.

Those who know Cush well say he got into the garbage removal business because he saw a need. It was never about making a quick buck. Cush bought eight trucks and started his company with contracts to clear three areas, and eventually he was awarded two more contracts because he never submitted a bid over and above the City’s engineer’s estimate, said an official with the City.

Meanwhile, Cevons, Puran and Sand-Dip have always negotiated for much more than the City engineer’s estimate “and they have always complained and frequently asked for extensions, but not Cush,” said an official who asked to remain anonymous.

Even the City itself failed to use a portion of the funds allocated to it from the 2024 budget to purchase a garbage truck. Instead, M&CC invested $30 million into the construction of its administrative building.

“It was not until the government instructed the City to use a portion of the $200M to buy garbage trucks that it finally complied,” said the city official.

Jacobs believes the City needs incentives to change the culture of waste disposal and a modern architecture to treat and recycle waste. An environmental and waste disposal expert who works for the City agrees. He says 50 per cent of all waste produced by the city is organic waste and most, if not all of it, ends up on landfill sites.

Last month, Recycle Organics, a Canadian organisation, conducted a free feasibility study to determine whether a shredder and a municipal compost programme could help alleviate Georgetown’s garbage crisis.
“When it came time to donate the shredder and launch the programme, the M&CC couldn’t find the time in their schedule to meet in person with Recycle Organics and the organisation which receives substantial funding from the Canadian government, packed up and left,

but not before donating a biodigester to the University of Guyana, a story, shockingly, that not a single news outlet covered. The anaerobic digester is expected to arrive in Guyana by year end.

“Introducing an anaerobic digester at the university will not only help demonstrate the remarkable process of turning organic waste into valuable fertiliser and biogas, but it will also inspire Guyanese students to explore the potential of organic waste valorization and promote environmental stewardship across communities in Guyana,” said Recycle Organics Program Coordinator and Technical Consultant, Beltrán Duhart.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.