Submitted by islandgal

Dear Mr  PM,

You were speaking about the garbage situation in Barbados.You claim that it is not the government that produces waste, it is us the householders, I can agree with that to some extent. You claim when you drive around the island you see large piles of garbage,  I am so glad you can now see what we have been seeing for many years. You say that it is because householders want to  quickly get rid of their garbage that they put it out even though they know full well when the truck will be passing. Mr PM you keep blaming the citizens of this country for the piles of garbage along the roadsides. How the hell can we put our garbage on schedule?  Have you any idea that we the householders haven’t a clue when the garbage truck will pass? They no longer come on the scheduled days and many times they fail to come for many weeks.  They will arrive at any time including very late at night sometimes around midnight.

Why don’t you ask the Minister in charge of the Sanitation and Environment why this is so? But your Ministers have gone ahead and secretly signed an agreement with an unknown company with no track record to build  a Waste to Energy plant without any thought of how it will affect this island in the long run. I know we have a very poor track record of implementing and maintaining standards on this island. We can’t even run the sewage plant efficiently, so how the hell can we run a Waste to Energy plant? Have you all tried other measures for a cleaner environment, such as banning Styrofoam? Taxing the fast food places? Making it mandatory that all school children be responsible for cleaning up the litter around the school they attend?  The private schools are doing it successfully. How about making drug offenders and those caught littering do community service by cleaning up the island?

Your government made a money grab last year calling it a Solid Waste Tax now you all are looking for ways to further tax us for garbage your government is incapable of collecting.  Your government has yet to fine anyone for illegal dumping and citizens for littering. Your Finance Minister is looking at ways to tax Waste Haulers as if that will stop illegal dumping. Can’t you all for once look at the bigger picture? By introducing the tipping fee you have made it almost impossible for citizens like myself to hire someone to take away my garden trash. I do recycle and compost but the larger pieces I used to burn like tree branches, coconut branches and coconut shells to use the ashes in my garden. Now I can’t burn garden thrash but the farmer next door to me can spray his deadly chemicals into my airspace, my home, contaminating my environment and endangering my health as well as my household.

Is there anyone in your government capable of seeing the bigger picture?