Victoria Falls Municipality on waste management

 Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

IN an effort to encourage recycling and sustainable waste management, Victoria Falls Municipality is urging residents to separate garbage in their homes and use organic waste as compost in gardens.

The local authority has said majority of waste is biodegradable kitchen left overs that can be recycled and used at household level.

Residents mix metals and electric gadgets including batteries which increases fossil fuels that cause veld fires at the dumpsite while also causing disposal challenges for the council at the dumpsite.

Speaking during a tour of an engineered landfill under construction, Victoria Falls town clerk Mr Ronnie Dube said the local authority is investing in sustainable waste management to meet international tourism destination standards.

The low cost landfill is being constructed using Devolution Funds from Government and is modelled around the Fukuoka waste treatment model in Japan.

“We are too eager to manage our waste post-Covid-19. This period has given us time to think about how to make our town green. We asked to meet stakeholders here so they have an appreciation of the project. We are a tourism town and we saw it fit to invest Devolution Funds into the project that so we meet world destination standards. We had planned a programme of centralising refuse collection in suburbs where we would be collecting from designated points with people expected to separate waste at home,” said Mr Dube.

He said waste separation at source is cost effective.

Victoria Falls town engineer Mrs Sherinah Sibanda said awareness programmes are lined up to educate residents about waste management.

She said mixing waste material is costly for council and makes management difficult yet residents can improve livelihoods through recycling.

“We had planned an awareness programme but we had to start by doing the landfill after getting $3,5 million Devolution Funds. Waste differs from town to town and suburb to suburb. We will need to characterise our waste and teach people to start separating at source. We may find no need for big bins at home but simply use plastic bags because some of the rubbish we put in bins is biodegradable and can be used as compost in our gardens. In developed countries waste generates revenue but for us we throw everything away,” said Mrs Sibanda.

She said the council will introduce centralised refuse collection where residents will take their bins to certain points near their houses on the day of refuse collection.

“Station collection makes collection easier, efficient and saves fuel and time as the truck won’t be getting into each and every street. We would need a cage, not for people to offload garbage but to put bins on the day of refuse collection. This will also encourage everyone to be responsible and not load soil and heavy material into bins,” explained the engineer.

Residents are encouraged to put electrical gadgets, metals, plastic paper and containers, tins and other items separately.

Mrs Sibanda said council will come up with a calendar for collection of specific type of waste.

She said even people who scavenge for valuables at the dumpsite will not do it haphazardly and litter the environment as they will go to specific points where the things they want will be.

Mrs Sibanda said in countries where waste separation is done at source, businesses advertise on refuse trucks because they are clean.

Outgoing Combined Victoria Falls Residents Association chair Mr Morgen Gazza Dube said it will be prudent to constantly educate residents about waste separation and recycling.

Source: Victoria Falls Municipality on waste management (11/09/20)