Landfill Management Document Complete – NSWMA

The Executive Director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), Joan Gordon-Webley, announced that a multi agency guide for the management of the nation’s eight landfills was now completed and available for the Prime Minister and Cabinet to review.
She announced this during the NSWMA Recognising Excellence and Staff Awards Function on June 5 in Kingston.
Mrs Gordon-Webley told Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding who was the guest speaker at the NSWMA awards function, “We have just finished a document that outlines how we are going to keep our landfills safe. In collaboration with private engineers, the fire department and the JDF, this document is now ready. It will cost a pretty penny, but alas, you have said that no more is coming. We are not daunted by that, we are going to make our own money because the board is capable. They know how to instruct and they know how to cover us while we go out there and work hard.”
Mrs Gordon-Webley said, “One of the new features of our landfills is the fact that they have management. We continue to cover, we have been cutting roads (in the landfill) and we have a strict policy that workers must get their injection and get it on time. In other words, we are making sure that we keep our landfill workers safe. We have been covering Riverton although we have not been budgeted.”
Mrs Gordon-Webley noted that the Authority had improved its performance in extinguishing landfill fires, down from just over six weeks to four and a half days. The Executive Director said that earning additional funds was essential to keeping landfills safe. Among the activities being done by the NSWMA is the sale of discarded appliances as scrap metal and earning from verge maintenance contracts.
The ‘Best Kept Landfill’ was awarded to Riverton with special note being made of major improvements that have been done at that site. Awards were presented to Landfill workers for their outstanding work attitude, job knowledge, team spirit, initiative and responsiveness to emergencies. The event also celebrated the first resident of Riverton ever to be promoted from Landfill Worker to Landfill Supervisor. The Executive Director’s prize for outstanding contribution to the Authority went to 25-year veteran of the Myersville Landfill in St Elizabeth, Mr Felix Cameron.