INCREASED CONSUMPTION IS GENERATING INCREASED WASTE

Jun 06, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The amount of waste generated each day by the business community today is more than what was generated by the entire country thirty years ago. This volume of solid waste will continue to grow.
More importantly, more food is being wasted today than ever before. And this means that the country and the people as a whole are losing valuable income as a result of the spoilage and dumping of food.
This point was effectively recognized during World Environment Day which was observed yesterday. There was equally an important recognition made about the need to maintain a healthy environment. Apart from discouraging the indiscriminate dumping of garbage, efforts must also be made to reduce human consumption so as to lessen the amount of garbage generated.
Guyana’s waste disposal system was never geared to handle the massive increase in the consumption of food and other items. The system was hardly sufficient in the days when the supermarket shelves in the country were barren. As such, it cannot cater for the tremendous increase in consumption that has taken place in Guyana over the past twenty five years.
As such, all the pleas for personal efforts to be made to reduce littering will not fundamentally address one of the main problems facing the country: the massive increase in the amount of garbage generated and the massive amount of garbage generated in particular in Georgetown which has now acquired the sobriquet of the ‘garbage city.’
Banning Styrofoam is inevitable. As soon as the oligarchy is convinced that it can corner the market in the importation of alternatives to Styrofoam and cardboard boxes, pressure will be brought to bear on the government to ban these products. As soon also as there is the capacity for large-scale recycling, only then will we see measures being rolled out to turn trash into cash.
There have been in the past many solutions offered that could use the amount of solid waste generated to create jobs and provide incomes for persons. Take for example, the city’s markets. These generate millions of dollars waste each day, including a large quantity of vegetable wastes.
Yet with a simple device such a bio-digester, this waste can be converted into useful organic fertilizers for agriculture albeit on a small scale. A great many jobs can also be created for many of the scavengers that can be found around the markets. But to date no one has seen the value in obtaining or building such a bio-digester so as to convert vegetable waste into useful products that can earn income and create jobs.
A major recycling plant for plastics and for cardboard will also create numerous jobs and if Guyana wants to go modern it can even contemplate converting human waste into energy as is done in many countries. Right now most of the human waste in the city is dumped into the ocean, not far away from where a major hotel is being constructed. Instead of dumping this untreated sludge into the river, it can be converted into a variety of other products.
The reason why these actions are not being taken is because these activities are being looked at from the perspective of commercial profits rather than social objectives such as creating jobs and small scale industries.
There is a great potential for small scale environmental projects and this is what the international community should be encouraging. These small scale projects will allow for dollars to be made from things that are usually dumped.
There is no doubt also a need to reduce the pile up of garbage in the country. But the demand for waste disposal services will always be chasing the supply of garbage unless there is a change in the consumption patterns in Guyana.
With more monies in their hands, Guyanese are consuming more and more and as is known the more stuff that people accumulate the less they dispose of other stuff.
Unless therefore there is serious attempt to address local consumption patterns there will always be solid waste disposal problems in Guyana. The faster we understand this the better it will be for all concerned.

Latest News

INCREASED CONSUMPTION IS GENERATING INCREASED WASTE

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Team Guyana ready to take on Haiti and Cayman Islands FIBA 3×3...

Timehri Hustlers dispatch Tiger Bay as Gold is...

Windies Masters announce squad for Americas Cup

Stormy Victory, Morning Colors stepping up for...

Region 7 Edition of CNOOC Petroleum Guyana...

Vergenoegen Secondary sweeps Region Three...

Features/Columnists

Raises and Recognition

High-Stakes Bid for OAS Secretary General post

Laws and boards

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

INCREASED CONSUMPTION IS GENERATING INCREASED WASTE

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]