Complaint about state of recycling bins

| 01/09/2016

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.

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Category: Ask Auntie

Comments (6)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Last week I was at the dump and watched a Junk truck, presumably now run by government, dumping its entire load of glass bottles onto Mount Trashmore… That doesn’t seem to be good recycling…

    • Anonymous says:

      serious?? Next time get your phone and film it , that is terrible

  2. Anonymous says:

    I have no complaint about the recycling bins, only about some of the members of the public who use them, I.e. The bin which clearly says “glass” does not mean that the cardboard case containing 24 empty beer bottles should also be placed there. A common sight, Auntie.

  3. Anonymous says:

    The recycling needs to be run by someone that has the business in there blood not sitting at a desk giving blind orders without a clue Recycling can only be accomplished by someone that has a life time of real life experience not the crap written in books

  4. East End Resident says:

    I am happy to report that every time I visit the recycling center at Savannah, there has been plenty of room for my donations. It’s working well for me, I just wish it was more widely adopted and more people were doing it. It only takes a couple of minutes to drop off your goodies as you shop, or on the way to work. Let’s all do our part to reduce Mount Trashmore.