On Monday November 5th, the St. Kitts Solid Waste Management Corporation (SWMC) is introducing the Door to Door Pilot Project collection model in several communities namely Bird Rock, Earl Morne and Camps and Mattingly at specified days each week. General Manager of the Solid Waste Management Corporation Mr. Keithley Phillip explained how this will work. “In the first instance we will begin in the Bird Rock/Earl Morne area and we will do door to door collection there on Monday mornings and Thursday mornings. Originally we were doing single week collection…but this shall be changed to now include two days,” he said. “The second area includes the Camps/Mattingly area and this includes all of the neighbouring areas and we will be doing collection on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Mr. Phillip explained the rationale behind this new pilot project and how it will improve the efficiently of the collection of garbage to residents in those communities. “We realize we were having a number of challenges with the model we have been using for the past few year. The model we have been using over the past few years include the placement of bins in various areas. What we found happening is that random persons would come from wherever and they would throw items in those bins. We realize that contractors would come and throw their waste in these bins. We realize that persons would throw dead animals in these bins. And so we realize it had become a health hazard. It also became an area where small pockets of dumps were being encouraged,” Mr. Phillip added. “We opted to go back to what we did first—that is door to door collection.

Meanwhile, Ms. Tyasha Henry, Collection Officer expressed confidence that this pilot project will greatly assist the workers of the SWMC in serving the communities. “We hope to assist people more in that area and moving forward we look out to hear what everyone has to say about that area,” she said.

The Door to Door Pilot Project is all part of the effort by the SWMC to improve waste collection on St. Kitts and is a precursor to the new collection model the corporation plans to roll out at the start of 2019.