THE EDITOR, Sir:

I write in reference to a letter written by Sunny that was published in The Gleaner of Wednesday, January 23, 2013, titled 'Harassment by NSWMA'.

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), as regulator for the solid-waste industry, is charged with the responsibility to ensure that business operators provide proof that they employ the services of registered waste haulers to collect, transport and dispose of solid waste generated by their business activities, and the waste hauler must show proof that solid waste is deposited in any of our eight disposal sites islandwide.

Based on increased efforts to reduce illegal dumping, littering and the high costs and turnaround time associated with cleaning and clearing dump sites, streets and other roadways islandwide, we have increased our Enforcement and Compliance initiatives, in keeping with Section 21 of the NSWM Act (2001).

These enforcement operations have revealed to the team that several business operators are not employing the services of registered waste haulers, but are instead:

I. taking waste generated by their businesses and adding same to their household waste for collection by us,

II. depositing their commercial waste in any available skip/dumpster in the community/area,

III. depositing waste in open lots,

IV. paying handcart owners to 'take it away' from their property,

V. leaving their waste at illegal dump sites along any roadways and;

VI. depositing their commercial waste in gullies and drains.

The NSWMA keeps a record of all registered waste haulers and the frequency in which they visit our disposal sites. We, however, do not keep records of their customers, but instead, conduct random checks on business operators to ensure that they make provision for the removal of waste generated by their businesses. It is this verification exercise that we conducted on Princess Street. It is not our intention to offend, but it is our responsibility to enforce.

Since the start of the year, significant improvements have been made in domestic waste collection. The NSWMA wants to assure the public that we have implemented several initiatives that are geared to consistently provide timely collection of solid waste, and we are now working with private waste haulers to improve general service delivery in the solid-waste industry.

SHAUNA GUTHRIE

Community Relations Manager

NSWMA