SOLID WASTE'S MILLION DOLLAR RAT

WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BOUGHT THAT SHREDDER

So, the $1.2m tire shredder broke down because of what, what, what?

No one saw that coming? Interesting. I saw it coming. Alberton Richelieu saw it coming. And neither of us have a masters’ degree. So what’s up with the geniuses at Solid Waste? Do masters degrees come with blinders now?

But then again, I know that before the Solid Waste Management Authority ever decided to buy the tire shredder, they got a proposal from a young St Lucian business man to pay him a relative pittance to collect ALL the tires of the island and get them the hell out of there.

The clever little fella realized that while used tires are garbage in St Lucia, they are a valuable recyclable material in St Lucia. If, say, Solid Waste gave him a couple cents to collect the tires and the Trinis paid him a dollar for each tire, he could be the richest, most environmentally friendly garbage man in St Lucia.

In other words, he would clean up. Literally. There would be nothing left of the tires in St Lucia but the dollars Trinidad paid us for our garbage.

But for some reason, Solid Waste decided it was more prudent to spend more than a million dollars on a tire shredder that would still leave tons of synthetic rubber in St Lucian landfills and which might inevitably break down.

Maybe because buying the $1.2m shredder was more cost effective. Nope. Not even if the shredder was working.  Maybe because the shredder had a better environmental impact. Nope, that’s not it either. The shredder reduced the tires to tons of landfill waste. The young businessman’s proposal paid St Lucia to make the tires leave the island completely. Not to mention that the Trinis recycled the tires, leaving much less waste than the shredder would.

So, why would Solid Waste spend more than a million dollars on a strategy that left us with tons of shredded rubber when they had an option that cause tens of thousands to enter St Lucia ever year and left us with not one ounce of the waste from used tires?

Why would enjoying choose the option that costs more and delivers less?

What does that smell like?

Can anyone at the Solid Waste Management Authority tell me what that smells like?

That is correct. It smells like rats. Dirty, thieving, conniving, sneaky, hard to catch, million dollar rats.

You wouldn’t think that the Solid Waste Management Authority would have a probably with rats. But there it is.

Million dollar shredder, my ass.