Coconut vendors refuse waste management assistance, says SWMC
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS-WILMON McCall, Operations Manager for the Solid Waste Management Corporation (SWMC) has stated that despite his many efforts to work out a deal with the coconut vendors in downtown Basseterre, they continue to improperly dispose of their waste.
“The vendors are very important to our visitors and locals who like coconuts, but as important as they may be the operators are not careful enough to dispose of their shells in a legal manner,” said McCall.
According to McCall, the coconut vendors are willing to pay to have the coconuts brought to Basseterre from Conaree, but are not willing to do the same for a return trip to the landfill.
“Places like Island Hopper, Ballahoo, Independence Square and the gardens next to Ashbury’s have all experienced a lot of problems with the ‘jelly’ vendors leaving bags of shells,” he informed SKNVibes.com. 
In addition to being an eyesore, the coconut shells can breed disease carrying insects and bacteria as they collect water and rot. McCall stated he would like to be able to remove the shells, but the vendors must be willing to cooperate.
“The vendors want to get rid of their waste, but they do not want to pay and that is where we have a problem,” said the Operations Manager. “One of the men told me that he can make as much as eight or nine hundred dollars on a good week, and yet they do not want to pay for a bin or the EC $30 per month we would charge them to leave their waste on one of our regular routes.”
When approached, two separate coconut vendors working in the Circus area said that they would be willing to pay for their waste to be taken away, but a consensus would have to be reached by all of the vendors. SKNVibes.com was then informed that certain vendors were the main contributors to the litter.
~~Adz:Left~~“There is a boy from Saddlers who has been leaving all these bags,” one vendor stated, indicating a number of bags piled in the bushes in the Circus garden. “He say he mash-up his foot and can’t take them to throw away, but I told him he can’t be leaving those stinking things out like that. Nobody wants to do business when they see that.”
McCall said that the vendors have made an effort to reduce the number of shells they are bringing to Basseterre by filling plastic bottles with ‘coconut water’ when the coconuts are picked in the morning, but this has raised health concerns.
“If they are going to fill bottles, they should be expected to go through a food handler’s clinic like the Health Department would require anyone else who is selling food for consumption,” McCall stated, bringing into question the cleanliness of the bottles considering they were “filled in the bush in Conaree.”
The Operations Manager said that he will continue to try and work with the vendors, but if an agreement cannot be reached soon he will be forced to file a report with the General Manager of the SWMC, Alphonso Bridgewater and approach the authorities to “deal with the matter”.
