Residents of Jamaica’s Westmoreland parish, who have endured growing mountains of uncollected garbage for months, are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel, as regional waste management officials have redirected emergency resources from neighboring St James to clear the crippling collection backlog.
Leona Bennett, senior public cleansing inspector for Western Parks and Markets (WPM) Waste Management Limited — the regional subsidiary of Jamaica’s National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) — outlined the emergency intervention during the monthly general meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation this week. Four additional waste collection trucks have been deployed to the parish to tackle accumulated waste, with the fleet set to remain on site until the entire backlog is eliminated, she confirmed.
“The trucks from St James began arriving last week, and they have continued working through this week, with crews on site as recently as yesterday and Friday. Regional operations manager Dramaine Jones has guaranteed that the vehicles will stay with us through next week, until every last trace of the backlog is cleared,” Bennett told assembled council members.
The temporary reassignment of vehicles is just one pillar of a broader, multi-pronged strategy to reverse Westmoreland’s waste crisis. To accelerate collection efforts, WPM has also extended operating hours by ramping up night shift services, with collection trucks now servicing main roads and residential communities after standard business hours.
“Local residents can confirm for themselves that our trucks have been active in their neighborhoods overnight. We are pulling out all the stops to erase this backlog as quickly as we possibly can,” Bennett said.
Alongside emergency collection measures, the agency is running ongoing bulky waste removal campaigns and community public education programs designed to curb persistent illegal dumping, one of the root causes of the parish’s waste management struggles. Bennett emphasized that long-term cleanliness depends on active participation from local residents, urging the public to take greater responsibility for waste disposal.
“We are asking everyone to take pride in our parish and properly contain all waste. If you are transporting waste, please dispose of it at designated communal bins instead of leaving it in unauthorized areas,” she said.
Bennett acknowledged that illegal dumping remains a persistent blight on Westmoreland’s communities, noting that the problem adds unnecessary strain to already stretched resources. “It slows our progress clearing the backlog when we constantly find new piles of illegally dumped waste on main roads and public spaces, left by people from across the parish,” she explained.
In a long-awaited update on a critical permanent infrastructure project, Bennett also confirmed that the long-delayed Westmoreland waste transfer station has finally entered the construction preparation phase. First announced back in 2014, the project has faced years of unanticipated delays that pushed its original 2024 operational target back, but site work is now officially underway. The project site has been fully cleared, and crews are currently laying base material for the facility’s foundation.
“Once the foundation work is complete, construction of the facility’s core infrastructure will proceed without further delays, and we will provide regular updates to the municipal corporation on progress,” Bennett said.
Local councillors welcomed the news of the transfer station’s progress, highlighting the transformative impact the facility will have on the parish’s long-term waste management capacity. Ian Myles, Jamaica Labour Party councillor for the Little London Division, called the start of construction a major milestone for Westmoreland.
“We all understand how vital this facility is for our parish, so to hear that construction is finally underway is incredibly exciting. Located just five minutes from Georges Plain, the transfer station will streamline waste hauling from central, eastern and western Westmoreland before waste is sent on to Montego Bay, and it will give us far more capacity to keep the entire parish clean,” Myles said.