Many of us will remember the old concrete garbage bins at the sides of the roads some of which are still around or at least pieces of them.
What we will probably remember most about them is the stench, garbage of all variety spilling out sometime half way into the road, stray dogs having a field day rummaging in the bins and scattering its foul smelling contents every which way.

We can further recall the battered collection trucks coming by now and then their attendants having to shovel garbage some fair distance away from the bins and toss them by the shovelfuls and forkfuls into the holds of the trucks.

The stink will of course remain long after the trash had been spaded up and the trucks departed. In fact the next set of garbage thrown into the bins with their own new odor will meet the odor of the just collected set still lingering on.

Those were the days of archaic waste collection and management in Grenada, 10 years ago and before that before the establishment of the Grenada Solid Waste Management Authority.

Those were the days when household waste was discarded at any time that suited the householder and stayed around in all kinds of weather at the mercy of stray animals, rodents, cockroaches, flies and all other walking, crawling and flying varmints imaginable until the trucks came by. It was not unusual for garbage to remain at the roadside bins for weeks spilling all over the place and this state of affairs was so taken for granted that it is only now that one can sit back and contemplate the hazards to health that were a commonplace part of our existence.

Before 1997 the Ministry of Health had the responsibility for garbage collection and waste management and being a department of a government ministry came with its attendant shortcomings and inefficiencies not the least of which was administrative deficiencies and lack of funds.

In those days garbage was only collected in the towns and their environs and was transported to an open dump in Perseverance there to be burned.
This was in no way the best possible method of waste management and certainly not the healthiest.

This knowledge existed among those responsible but there was nothing that could be done about it under the circumstances that existed then. The conditions leading up to the establishment of the GSWMA was an OECS-wide one but here in Grenada we can only comment on how this change impacted on our society. The formation of the authority ushered in a method of waste collection, transportation and disposal that was although not new to the world was new to us and many times safer and more effective than the method we were accustomed to.

During the last ten years we have come to take for granted, scheduled and reliable collection twice a week for domestic waste and every day for public receptacles. The term land fill has become a household word since we have moved away from the old method of open dumping.

However people must understand that an improved method of waste management costs and the money must come from somewhere.
At first the environmental tax that was introduced to take of the cost of the new system met with some opposition but it did not take long for people to see the major difference in the service they were getting and to understand that that service had to be paid for.

As the Grenada Solid Waste Management Authority celebrates ten years of existence it certainly has a lot to celebrate about. It has come quite a long way from the slip shod and not properly organized way of waste disposal.

What is presented to the public now is a professionally run institution that has over the time of its existence succeeded in presenting to the public a different perspective of waste management.

Members of the public now understand waste management to be much more than the mere collection and disposal of garbage but it involves finding the most effective way of disposing the garbage taking many things into consideration like health, land space and the environment.
As Chairperson of GSWMA so aptly put it waste management plays a part in every aspect of our lives and should be given the respect and consideration that it well deserves.

What is very important to note however is that the authority cannot hope to accomplish all that it has set itself in terms of effective waste management without the support and assistance of every members of the public.

From the little child with the candy wrapper to the housewife with her domestic waste to the trucker with his construction debris to the factory owner with his industrial waste, everyone of us must understand that waste management starts with the generators of the waste.
If we all do what is required us in terms of heeding the directives of the GSWMA, obey the law with regards to where we should and should not dump then the task will be much easier for all involved.

In addition we must begin to ready ourselves for the future of waste management and begin to consider composting as a serious option and start to shift in that direction.

We must also be aware that recycling is and inevitable part of the future of waste management in Grenada and must be ready for the call when it comes to begin separating our waste to make recycling easier.

Grenada Solid Waste Management Authority has made 10 progressive years with the help of all of us the next ten years will see the authority much further along in is drive to modernize waste management.