‘White Goods’ removal service this week

Once again, Vincentians are being offered the opportunity to dispose of their unwanted ‘white goods’ free of charge.{{more}}

Beginning yesterday, and continuing until the end of this week, the Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU) of the Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) will dispose of old appliances such as fridges, stoves or washing machines, free of charge.

Normally, consumers are required to pay a fee to dump them at the landfills of the SWMU.

However, there is one stipulation that General Manager of the SWMU Winsbert Quow wants persons to abide by and that is to put out their white goods only on their regularly scheduled garbage collection day.

Quow told SEARCHLIGHT that when the white goods removal was first initiated, even though the SWMU promoted the initiative extensively in the media, some persons still went ahead and did things their own way, by putting out their white goods before the scheduled pick up day in their area.

Quow explained that the free white goods removal service was initiated as there is a general problem of illegal dumping.

“We’re trying to get people into the mind set of not just discarding these things in the environment, because we were having that problem. Sometimes people throw these things in the rivers and in some cases you see stoves and fridges on the beach fronts and remote areas around St Vincent…

“So we wanted that practice stopped and we wanted all the white goods channeled to our landfill facility,” he added.

Quow added that despite the cheap fees set by the SWMU for dumping white goods at the landfill, some people were still not using the service and were still continuing to dump waste illegally throughout St Vincent.

The SWMU manager also revealed that last year’s initiative, which took place in September, was well received by the public, hence the reason for the continued effort.

According to Quow, 115 trucks of white goods were hauled during last year’s white goods removal service.

The white goods removal service will continue up until Saturday January 21.(AA)