By Claudia Liburd
Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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| Carlyn Lawrence |
(Charlestown; Nevis): Just over a month into her stint as General Manager of the Nevis Solid Waste Management (NSWM), Carlyn Lawrence has announced several upgrades to be implemented locally.
Lawrence who is also the former GM of the Caribbean Cable Communication explained to SKNVibes.com that while the career shift has proven to be challenging, it is also quite rewarding.
"I wanted to do something different, not a redundant job where you do the same thing over and over," she said. "I wanted to do something where I contributed to the well-being of my country while making a living for me and my family."
"I have been General Manager since the first of February 2007, and it has been challenging and rewarding at the same time. There is a lot to be done and it is exciting to find the solutions to existing problems. Right now there are a number of changes that I would like to make to different things," she said.
One of the new initiatives which Lawrence is currently working on is the collection of solid waste in the night period only to facilitate the free flow of traffic during the day time.
"We want to get to where we collect the waste at nights only. Right now waste is collected during the day and this is not effective enough," she said. "We want to start to collect it during the night so that when you wake up at mornings the trash will be gone and there will not be the nuisance of the truck being in the traffic in the day."
Further, Lawrence discussed the creation of a waste diversion from recycling.
"A waste diversion simply means that you divert the waste and send it off-island to recycling facilities that would take it. Presently, what happens is that it stays in the land fill and things that can be recycled are using up your landfill space& A landfill is a modern way of dealing with garbage. Back in the day we had dumps where people just used to go and dump the garbage and then burn the garbage which sent all the smoke and pollutants into the atmosphere."
She also said that with a landfill, the waste is spread into thin layers by heavy machinery which compresses it and then it is covered with dirt and buried. She said that it is very effective but one of the key elements to this is to recycle as much as you can so that you do not use up all your space in too quick a time.
In the wake of these new changes, the GM has appealed to members of the general public to obtain a garbage receptacle for their homes to facilitate garbage collection which is done twice weekly.~~adz:Right~~
"We want to encourage people to get a bin and have its own receptacle for its house. At the same time though, we want to encourage people not to throw certain items into the garbage bins in general such as batteries, tires, galvanize and carcasses. At this stage in the development of the NSWM we really want to see Nevisians more involved in waste management and the caring of the environment," said Lawrence.
