Editorial | Addressing the waste conundrum

 

In his contribution to Parliament’s sectoral debate this week, Mr Samuda, the environment minister, said that before the end of the current fiscal year, the Government will launch a national waste separation pilot project at public facilities across the island.

 

PROBLEM

 

This problem shows in irregular garbage collection, illegal dumping across communities, rubbish-strewn drains, and in overflowing landfills where waste is mostly inadequately handled and choking fires are frequent.

 

Plastics and microplastics, a huge problem in global garbage disposal, is not an insignificant one in Jamaica, notwithstanding the existing ban on certain types of single- use plastic bags and containers.

 

In a 2021 report, Jamaica: Plastics Ban Creates New Opportunities, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that of the 800,000 tonnes of residential waste Jamaica generates annually, 15 per cent is estimated to be plastic. UNEP data from 2018 estimated that Kingston generated 35,000 tonnes of plastic waste, of which 82 per cent was collected by municipal services. Much of the rest ended up in waterways and, ultimately, the world’s oceans.

 

DOESN’T REMAIN LOCAL

 

Or as World Bank Group’s Global Director for Urban, Subnational Finance, Tourism, and Disaster Management Ming Zhang put it in the bank’s 2026 report What a Waste 3.0 in the global solid waste question: “Trash discarded on a city street or a neighborhood dump does not remain local.

 

“Plastic carried by rivers reaches the ocean; methane from decomposing food escapes into the atmosphere; and open burning pollutes the air we all breathe. Waste is a municipally managed issue with consequences that are both local and global,” he said.

 

Food waste, too, adds to the problem.  When food waste goes to landfill, it breaks down and releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.

 

In Jamaica, the agriculture ministry estimated that 30 per cent (approximately little over 69,000 tonnes) of Jamaica’s agricultural output was wasted. This is a triple whammy: Food waste is a loss to national economies, impacts hunger, and adds to global warming. It is estimated that food loss and waste account for eight to 10 per cent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions -  nearly five times the total emissions from the aviation sector.

 

The World Bank’s report stresses that the problem of solid waste is not simply a matter of behaviour. Waste systems shape outcomes.

 

Where collection is inconsistent, sorting is limited, and disposal options are few, waste increases. Where systems improve, waste declines or is reused.

 

Which is why the initiative announced by Mr Samuda is important and timely.  However, the minister sketched the broad contours of the project, but additional details are necessary.

 

The bottom line, however, is that Jamaica needs to urgently modernise its solid waste management system, which demands better oversight and more effective management, at the operational and policy levels, than it now receives. Perhaps the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), which has recently been hit by a scandal over its approach to hiring senior staff, should be removed from the local government ministry.

 

Often in the past, calls for improvements in Jamaica’s solid waste management systems have been responded to with statements about an inability to afford the necessary overhaul.

 

But there are costs to doing nothing: to the environment, people's health, and in the cost of healthcare. And as the World Bank report pointed out: “Clean cities contribute to local economic development by enhancing competitiveness and strengthening the overall business environment.

 

“As cities transition towards more circular economies, where waste-derived materials are reintegrated into productive use, solid-waste management is firmly established as a driver of investment, private-sector participation, and job creation.”