We are delighted to have ordered more refuse compactors from China, which are expected to arrive in the country soon.
Our Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman Dr Dilesh Nguwaya said the additional trucks were expected to strengthen the fleet, improve service efficiency and help reduce the backlog and illegal dumping.
He said the company was aware that in some suburbs, collections would occasionally be missed due to the limited number of trucks.
Dr Nguwaya said it was of great concern that there were recurrences of illegal dumpsites in areas where refuse was collected regularly.
“This challenge is often linked to illegal dumping by private waste collectors, who dispose of the waste in undesignated areas to avoid paying disposal fees,” he said.
“It is also caused by non-compliant areas that are not covered in the official collection schedule.
“In addition, a persistent culture of littering and illegal dumping continues despite frequent collections.
“There are also instances where residents miss the collection trucks either because they did not take out their bins on time or did not hear the trucks and subsequently resort to illegal dumping.
“We continue to encourage residents and private collectors to dispose of waste responsibly and at designated sites.”
Dr Nguwaya said refuse collection schedules and operations were carefully planned according to the size, population and waste generation levels of each suburb.
“The number of trucks differs from area to area. For example, in Mufakose, we currently deploy four refuse compactors and in Kambuzuma, three,” he said.
“Collection in residential areas is once a week and in the CBD and high traffic zones, daily due to higher waste volumes. Skip bins are collected when they are full, but the ones in the CBD are collected daily.”
Dr Nguwaya said high-density areas and commercial zones tend to generate significantly more waste compared to low-density suburbs.
He said when a compactor is full, it offloads at the Geo Pomona Waste Management site in Pomona and returns to continue collection.
