Targeted waste removal strategies and the deployment of heavy equipment are being used to address illegal dumping and access constraints that emerged after the recent hurricane, WPM Waste Management Ltd. has highlighted.

Speaking at the recent monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation in Savanna-la-Mar, regional operations manager, Dramaine Jones, said the agency has been responding to unusually large amounts of garbage across the parish.

“Challenges that we would have encountered included a significant increase in waste-generation,” Jones said.

Despite intensified collection efforts, he noted that some communities continue to experience rapid waste buildup.

“Even collecting multiple times, we’re still seeing basically the same buildup in a very short space of time,” Jones noted.

To manage the situation, he said WPM has prioritised the use of heavy equipment and focused its operations on key corridors.

“We have tipper trucks as well as backhoes working, so these will be cleared in a short space of time,” he said, adding that significant progress has already been made.

“As it relates to removal, we would have removed in excess of 200 truckloads already, and we continue to remove waste,” he said.

According to Jones, clean-up efforts are being strategically sequenced to improve both efficiency and appearance.

“We have focused on our operations in terms of clearing out bulk waste and debris along the main roads,” he said.

“This is to increase overall aesthetics along the main roads, and then we’re going to the off roads to clear garbage,” Jones added.

He said WPM is also systematically addressing illegal dump sites across the parish.

“A number of them would have been cleared over the period,” he noted.