Composition of Georgetown’s solid waste 50% organic matter

The composition of municipal solid waste in the capital city Georgetown has recorded organic matter or putrescible waste at 50 per cent, calling on citizens to practice composting.
Accumulated data demonstrated that the next leading waste product was plastics along with textiles, cardboard, wood and plastic bottles among other materials in smaller quantities.
Solid Waste Director, Walter Narine shared his view on the matter via social media, urging persons to compost their organic waste. According to him, half of the waste which is sent to the Haags-Bosch landfill site can be utilised in the home to create kitchen gardens and other projects. It will also reduce the amount of methane gas that is released into the environment, along with leachate compounds which are also harmful.
The National Integrated Solid Waste Management Strategy report, which was completed by the Communities Ministry some time ago, had also placed these organic components at half of the total solid waste makeup. The total solid waste load was found to be 545.66 tonnes per day from a catchment area of 405,225 people, or equivalently, 1.35 kilograms of waste per person per day.
This month, it was reported that the Mayor and City Council launched a composting project in schools, teaching children at a young age about the numerous benefits.
Narine had explained that composting can be defined as the breakdown of organic waste into fertiliser, which can be used to stimulate the healthy growth of plants. He also hinted to the importance of composting as he pointed out that it helps to reduce greenhouse gases produced by humans.
Greenhouse gases are harmful to the protective layer of the earth, called the ozone layer. They are produced from vehicle exhausts among others. He said that methane gas and leachate are harmful and can pollute the water that we drink among other things.
In this regard, he said the project is geared towards educating the children who will then hopefully spread the message to their parents and friends to compost.
The next move, according to him, is to get into communities and teach persons how to compost their waste as it will, in turn, also cut the collection costs.
He had noted, “It will be beneficial to the municipality because it will reduce the frequency of collection because you don’t want your waste to be collected once a week [because] it starts to give off odour, it attracts rodents, dogs and stuff like that but if you take the organic component out of that waste we can collect twice a week and save costs because that would only be plastic and paper”.