On Monday, 15 August, I took my recycle bottles, cardboard and newspapers to the newly appointed collection stations, in particular Foster’s in Savannah and Hurley’s. At both locations the containers were overloaded and people forced to leave the recycled material in the open at the base of the containers. What happened to the collection and emptying of this container? After one month a new company took over the programme as the last one failed to perform and now this. What is the point for us citizens willing to do our part with recycling? As far as I’m concerned Cayman is not ready for recycling and the problem will continue. This matter has to be investigated and let’s keep our Island clean. Maybe you can have a look for yourself and see if you find the same that I did.


Auntie’s answer: I understand your frustration and I applaud your efforts to recycle. I know that collecting all of your bottles and paper goods and then hauling them to recycle locations require a fair degree of work since my household does the same. Finding overloaded bins and a surrounding mess is disheartening.

With that in mind, I took your suggestion seriously and paid a visit to the two locations you described. And to make the playing field as even as possible, I did it on a Monday as well.

Here’s what I found: the bins by Foster’s in Countryside Shopping Village were about half full and the ones at Hurley’s looked fine as well. I would say both were a big improvement on when they were managed privately.

Perhaps between the two weeks when you found the conditions unacceptable and now, others noticed and did something to fix things. I would be the first to issue a finger wag, as I have done before, if I thought something were amiss. But this time, I think we need to give some credit to the Department of Environmental Health because someone over there seems to be doing his or her job.

But if the next time you make a recycling trip you find the bins are overflowing and the area is a mess, please take a photo and send it to me. I will be happy to follow up with the department.