SWMC: Changing a culture for two decades
It’s not often one gets to say that a government owned corporation have impacted a culture of a country. Not only has the SWMC changed the psyche and attitude of residents and citizens towards waste disposal, they transformed an entity from just a mere semblance of a department to a valuable national institutional. Before the legislation was passed that paved the way for the establishment of the SWMC, the Environmental Health Department was responsible for garbage collection on the island. The rationale was rather than having the department monitor and execute the task, have a corporation do the work of waste collection and management with oversight from the department. Hence, the SWMC was born. While a commendable job was done prior to the existence of the SWMC, the mindset of residents towards proper waste disposal was less than desirable. There was also much work to do for the improvement of garbage collection on the island, as there were some deficiencies that could not be easily fixed. That’s when the SW MC came into the picture 20 years ago.
Work culture
General Manager Alphonso Bridgewater who has been a staple in the corporation since its inception, acknowledged that the SWMC instilled a culture of pride, responsibility and ownership among waste disposal staff when the SWMC began. “Clearly we have enhanced the pride that the employees have in the work they do and the pride on the job itself; a lot of that boils over into pride the public reflects on them. That was critical and that helps with motivating them over time,” Mr. Bridgewater said.
On that note, Mr. Wilmon McCall the SWMC Operations Supervisor has also seen a massive improvement in the work ethic of the workers. “Alcoholism in the work place is almost non-existent, but we assume what we see is what we get, at least not on the job. That’s why social programs are arranged,” Added to that the workers are more like a family now with more social activities being held for staff and everyone looks out for each other such as visiting those who may be sick in the hospital, playing games together etc. “Slowly but surely we are getting there,” Mr. McCall said.
Waste culture shift
Not only were staff members impacted, but most importantly the culture of wanton waste disposal began to change because of the work of the SWMC. “They told us it was impossible to get people, in large measure to put out their waste at particular times and so on. It’s not 100% but it’s a far cry from what it used to be,” Mr. Bridgewater recalled. He noted that over the years they have managed to inculcate in the populace to demonstrate responsibility for waste disposal. “Substantial improvement has been made to that. There is still some ways to go but we are satisfied with the improvement,” he told The SWMC Insider. Another area where Solid Waste helped to transform the culture is in the area of safety and public health. Prior to the SWMC, households used the galvanize bins, which were not safe. “They used to cause havoc not only in terms of the injury they pose on people but also the dangers they provide as well,” he added.
From a dump to the landfill
Before SWMC there was the “dump” but over the last 20 years, the SWMC have endeavored to create a sanitary landfill that is properly managed. No longer do people go to the “dump” to dispose their garbage. They instead have the waste properly processed and disposed of, which was a huge culture shift to what existed before. Though there are challenges now as the landfill has passed its natural life. The SWMC has done a remarkable job in keeping it usable until a more permanent solution is found. Dump fires for one have been kept to a minimum Mr. Bridgewater pointed out. “There is always some sort of heat generated underneath. We have been able to keep less than the median in terms of fires. We have had one or two large fires and managed them well,” he said.
New building
The icing on the cake for all the major accomplishments of the SWMC is undoubtedly the new SWMC Building—SWMC Headquarters (HQ), Taylor’s Range. The corporation moved into its brand new building in July 2, 2015. The cherry on the cake—a very big cherry too. The building is a spectacle of brilliant architecture with very spacious office space. Not only does it houses the offices of the SWMC, it provides additional space for rent for conferences in the state of the art SWMC Conference Facility.
In the early 2000s, the SWMC had moved from its initial location to an office space in the Amory Building. But it costs $75000 a month to utilize the space. Hence the board of the SWMC at the time thought that money could be better allocated and decided to get its own building. Without getting a loan, the SWMC, little by little, built its own Headquarters in Taylors Range within two years. “I am happy to say we don’t owe any bank, we don’t have any loan, we don’t owe any contractor,” Mr. Bridgewater said confidently. As the Corporation looks ahead, Mr. Bridgewater hopes the transformation brought about by the existence of SWMC will continue to impact a positive mindset about waste and waste disposal and productivity. Twenty years hence, the SWMC is still going strong transforming the culture of waste disposal on the island.