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Staff of the Sanitation Service Authority were hard at work recently in Chapman Street in the City, removing bulky waste from that area and clearing debris from the side of the road.

‘Respect the environment’

There is a call for Barbadians to show greater respect for the environment and to dispose of their refuse, in particular bulky waste, in the correct way.

It is coming from Carl Padmore, Public Relations Officer (PRO) at the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA).

Padmore made mention of this in an interview with The Barbados Advocate, as he spoke of the SSA’s continuing efforts to get Barbadians to properly discard of such waste given the health hazards they can pose, as he reflected on the latest effort which included removal of such trash from Chapman Street in the City.

“The SSA from time to time has been conducting a number of bulky waste clean-up projects in and around Bridgetown and what you would have witnessed would have been just the continuation. We are concerned that Barbadians are generating too much bulky waste, and bulky waste provides a haven for the rodents and wild animals, and therefore we encourage them to bring out their bulk waste on that particular day,” he said.

Padmore continued, “We do not ever encourage bulky waste to be commingled with the normal household waste, and so we don’t like people to set down the bulky waste without notifying us.”

His comments came as he said that the SSA’s bulky waste removal efforts are in keeping with their goal to help minimise the spread of dengue, while trying to keep Barbados beautiful. He said this is work that they take very seriously and are committed to doing. Padmore made the point while noting that the SSA often works in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Environmental Health in this regard.

Asked if Barbadians are heeding the call to contact the SSA if they want bulky waste removed, Padmore said it is not as often as they would like.

“There are a lot of Barbadians who still are not showing any type of respect for the environment and it’s concerning us a lot, because the truth is, we have to treat the environment like how, I can’t even say how we treat our bodies, but we need to love our environment – that’s the bottom line. We are not seeing the care and attention given to the environment that should be given at all and we are very, very, very concerned about that,” he stated.

Padmore also lamented that too many people are disposing of their household waste with little regard for the environment.

“You see people sometimes even waiting until the garbage truck has passed and then within five minutes bringing out stuff. Why? We see that so often. You will see a community that has a skip, we would clear that skip today and you go back three hours later and a skip is full again. So where is that stuff coming from? So we are concerned about that type of behaviour and we are just really hoping that Barbadians would treat in a more respectful way to the environment,” he stated.

(JRT)

Barbados Advocate

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