Haags Bosch garbage site set for major upgrades/expansion

Plans for minor and major upgrades and expansion to the Haags Bosch garbage landfill are in the pipelines. The new initiatives, geared towards improving the capabilities of the site, were unveiled on Thursday during a tour of the Eccles, East Bank Demerara facility.

The Haags Bosch landfill, which is legally required to collect and dispose of solid waste from Georgetown and the East Coast of Demerara, has been functioning close to optimal efficiency since undergoing consistent improvements to its waste management practices from 2017 and onward.

Manager of the facility Lloyd Stanton stated that Haags Bosch is currently in the process of preparing a new massive solid waste disposal and processing cell for the garbage coming to the landfill.

This new disposal and processing cell will be referred to as ‘cell two.’

“We [Ministry of Communities] have improved the site roads for ease of access to commuters when they bring their garbage to the site. We have also partnered with the [Environmental Protection Agency] to run the site to make sure it’s run in an environmentally friendly manner,” Stanton said.

“We have already started construction of cell two. We have already done part of the garbage retention ditch and the excavation will be started very shortly and this we’re hoping to complete by January,” the manager further noted.

Haags Bosch is currently serviced by approximately 30 contracted employees and 69 waste pickers who help to sort solid waste and salvage reusable materials.

These workers service the site’s lone large operational garbage cell known as ‘cell one.’ Cell one currently receives all of the collected solid waste that comes to the site for processing.

The Landfill Manager stated that the ministry also recently signed three contracts to upgrade dumpsites in three other regions; this is part of an initiative to construct more environmentally friendly landfill sites around the country.

“We have sites in Rose Hall, there’s one in Corriverton; they’re not yet landfilled sites but they are identified dumpsites to be upgraded to landfill sites.

“We were tasked to form a joint committee with the EPA and we are currently going around the country assessing dump sites with the intentions of recommending which could be upgraded to landfill and which should just be refurbished and shut,” Stanton explained.

He said that increased traffic along the East Coast Demerara has played a role in impeding garbage trucks coming from those areas to access the Eccles landfill.

He stated that this challenge resulted in trucks coming from the East Coast to be diverted and temporarily dump garbage at the dumpsite located behind the Lusignan prison. (Nigel Collymore)