New board of Solid Waste Mgnt Authority holds 1st meeting

We have not heard much about them of late, but the new board of the Solid Waste Management Authority held its first meeting today. The inaugural powwow took place in Belmopan and according to Director Gilroy Lewis, the objective was to bring all the members up to date with the solid waste management project which will be implemented this year.

Gilroy Lewis, Dir., Solid Waste Management Authority
“The highlight of the meeting today was explaining to them the structure of the Solid Waste management Project for the Western Corridor, the different components of that project. That project consist of four components; the first component has to do with the mile three dump sit. That dump site will be closed as part of that component and a transfer station and material recovery facility will be constructed in its place. Component number two of that project, we have the construction of a sanitary landfill at mile twenty-four on the Western Highway. The sanitary landfill will receive waste from the transfer station and then it will be land filled there at that facility. Component three has to do with the closure of dump sites at San Pedro, Caye Caulker, San Ignacio, Santa Elena and then these will also be converted into transfer stations. At those facilities also you will have recycling as well as composting. What the transfer station does is you transfer the waste from the garbage trucks that collect it in town and then you transfer it into bigger trailers. So it’s the trailers that would haul the waste to the landfill.”

Another component of the project is the institutional strengthening of the authority and the local government bodies. The new board members are Llewelyn Williams, Noland Michael, Winston Taylor, Mario Fernandez, Martin Alegria and Michael Pitts.