Report your waste says TCI Environmental Health Department

Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, May 10, 2023 – Residents and representatives in the Turks and Caicos are being asked to report when their garbage is not being collected for extended periods. The call came from a representative of the Environmental Health Department as he sat before the Appropriations Committee.

Detailing the department’s budget for the 2023/24 year the representative said:

“What we try to encourage is once complaints are received it should be sent to the environmental health department and measure it against the deliverables from the contractors.”

A solid waste management committee will be meeting monthly to oversee the process.

“We’ll have the officers identify each zone that the contractors have, tabulate those complaints and enforce penalties— we’re pushing that initiative to have compliance across the board.” he said.

He said without area specific complaints being passed on to the department, the chance to verify the complaints and fix the issue could be missed.

He maintained that additional staff was always needed for waste collection especially given the construction and population booms, but a new recycling initiative should cut down on the amount of waste being pumped into landfills.