$2.2M spent on updated garbage fleet

| 24/08/2020 | 37 Comments

(CNS): The Cayman Islands can look forward to seeing real improvement in garbage collection and general management in the coming weeks after almost $2.2 million has been spent on eleven new garbage trucks and other heavy equipment. The Department of Environmental Health has also come up with a new logo that is “better aligned with the department’s direction, and core values”, according to a press release from the beleaguered department, as it attempts a fresh start.

DEH Director Richard Simms said the money for the new fleet was budgeted before the COVID-19 pandemic and the new vehicles would provide better service to the islands He also said that the rebrand would help shine a light on what DEH is all about.

“The facelift really helps breathe new life into our brand and the fleet looks amazing. The logo denotes cleanliness, our clean clear waters, sunshine and brilliance,” he stated in a press release about the new fleet and the spruce up.

But there was no mention in the release about the long-term plans for the country’s waste-management project and the ever-growing George Town dump. It is now almost three years since DECCO and a consortium of waste-management contractors were selected as the winning bidders.

Meanwhile, the DEH has bought four 25-yard residential rear-loader garbage trucks, one small 11-yard residential rear-loader garbage truck, two 40-yard front-end loader garbage trucks, a medium-sized grapple truck and two roll-on-roll-off (hook lifts). A side loader garbage trucks is being returned to the supplier because the wrong specifications were delivered.

The role of the DEH is to protect the public from environmental health related hazards through: strategic management of food hygiene and safety, laboratory services, district sanitation and rodent control, engineering and developmental control, solid and hazardous wastes including waste collection, recycling and disposal; as well as public education and promotion programmes. It also manages the landfill and waste to energy programmes.

Tina Ebanks, Graphic Design Coordinator at GIS, said she wanted the logo to refelct how multi-faceted DEH is, “while at the same time reflecting their five year strategic plan and future growth. And of course something that really speaks to their ‘green’ goals.”

Officials said the rebrand included a new simplified logo, an updated color palette, new contemporary typeface, with an improved website in the works for 2021.

The minister responsible for waste management, Dwayne Seymour, said it was a really exciting time for DEH and he was very happy to see them continue to improve their services, despite all the challenges that came with the lockdown. But Seymour said nothing about the long-awaited national waste management plan and the ongoing talks with the Dart Group, or the failure to make any advancement since talks began with his ministry in October 2017.

The rebrand included a new simplified logo, an updated color palette, new contemporary typeface, with an improved website experience in the works for 2021.


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Category: Environmental Health, Government Finance, Health, Politics

Comments (37)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    DEH should focus on residential garbage collection only. Therefore only rear loading trucks needed. Leave the private sector companies to deal with skip rental and clearing as they do a much better job.
    DEH get the MLA’s to amend the law to mandate that all commercial & residences with over 3 units to use skips, not just the newer facilities. Residential collection should not include 15/20 bins from an apartment complex.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Now if they could just train the crews not to shout at the tops of their voices at 3am, that would be appreciated.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Collecting on Crewe Road at 8am this morning. It’s almost like they deliberately set out to piss people off.

    • Anonymous says:

      “My garbage hasn’t been collected in forever” then “why are you collecting so early” seriously get over yourself. Garbage collection isn’t a glamorous job, stop being extra or take it to the dump yourself.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I am still trying to understand how we reached the point where we had problems with garbage collection. Is that we had old trucks that eventually broke down because we did not replace them as required? Is it that we had trucks that were expected to last for a significantly longer time but had to be prematurely replaced because the old were defective or damaged in some way?

    The article was not clear on exactly how we reached the point where we started to have major problems with garbage collection and who ultimately was responsible.

    • Anonymous says:

      Before DEH successfully diverted $4mln from 2019 Budget, it was explained that they were 10-20 years old, and poorly maintained. Some of them were missing engines and drivetrains scavenged to keep others working. They were deemed more expensive to try to fix than just replacing. We are asking the wrong questions. What happened with the $1.8mln difference and is any of this booked cost being replicated on the 2020 Balance Sheet?!?

  5. Silenced says:

    CNS Where are the rating options?

    CNS: The manipulation of the thumb votes has become ridiculous. I’m trying to find a way round it.

  6. Anonymous says:

    The Department of Environmental Health received $4 million from the 2019 Budget to purchase 11 new trucks. The fleet of vehicles was to consist of five rear-end loaders, two front-end loaders, two roll-on roll-offs, one grapple, and one side loader. The new trucks were purchased in order to help normalise garbage collection services and were expected to arrive in Cayman sometime before the end of 2019, DEH Director Richard Simms had said.

    …which brings us to the latest Unity-regime arithmetic problem:
    KYD$4,000,000 – $2,200,000 = $1,800,000 <— do we have any visibility on where this went? Or is it worse…is the $2,200,000 being taken from the 2020 Budget for a $4,000,000 unaccounted from 2019?!?

  7. Anonymous says:

    It will matter little as the DEH employees do everything as usual to wreck the new trucks so as to be able to claim more overtime.
    We should just privatize the service and be done with it.

    • Anonymous says:

      How were you able to verify what was happening with the other trucks? Nobody seems to be coming forward to admit that the trucks are being damaged.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Was the money for these taken from thr environmental protection fund?

    • Anonymous says:

      DEH was paid $4mln in 2019 from CIG Budget for these trucks. The question should be: what is the status of the $1.8mln difference?

  9. Wonderful wasteland says:

    Great to hear about the new trucks to collect waste, but where is the investment in more recycling projects.
    Every house can sort their rubbish but DEH needs to take it to the next level and show genuine commitment to recycling and getting the sorted materials to processing centers off island.

    And no DEH special bins for all the used masks for the worlds deadliest virus that has bankrupted families, business and shut down economies? 🤨

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  10. Anonymous says:

    How about not leaving the cardboard for recycling to get rained on.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Dwayne Seymour, said it was a really exciting to see a new contemporary typeface

  12. Anonymous says:

    Why didn’t they get someone to inspect them before they sailed so “wrong specifications” didn’t happen

  13. Anonymous says:

    Fix the damn dump.

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    • Hubert says:

      The Dump is NOT / NOT a political priority even if it is in the Minister of Infrastructure’s constituency.

    • Anonymous says:

      Well, it has been said previously: the island needs to either import garbage (politically unthinkable) or increase the population to 100,000 to make Waste to Energy solutions economically viable. At present DECCO is technically responsible and going through the motions to cap and decorate, presumably land-banking the heap for WTE feedstock if that ever makes sense in Grand Cayman.

  14. So many questions but no answers says:

    Wow, a rebranding, just like C&W to LIME to Flow. More lipstick on a pig. A new logo and shiny new equipment does not all of a sudden change an environmentally irresponsible entity into a responsible one.
    Try implementing a tangible, realistic and credible action and plan before trying to change your stripes.

    How much of that $2.2M went towards rebranding and how much came back under the table? And why weren’t any trucks for curb side pickup of recyclables included in the new equipment order? Who’s brainchild was it and who mandated the rebranding?

    Not a peep about the dump revamping by Dart, that’s telling. Deal must have either fizzled or too complex for Jon Jon to make comment on. Well it’s about time for the minister to ready his donkey, ride off into the sunset and leave the heavy lifting for the next administration.

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    • Anonymous says:

      If you didn’t have CIG to moan about what would your life actually be like?

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      • Big Bobo says:

        If I did not have to drive by the DUMP every day and smell the stench my life would be so much better and my moaning would cease.

        11:57, Living is easy with eyes closed it’s understanding all you see.

        • Anonymous says:

          You understand what mangrove swamps smell like at low tide? Now imagine a massive open air sewerage treatment plant right next door.

      • Anonymous says:

        Probably better because we would have a government that was functioning.

  15. Anonymous says:

    How about some basic traffic law lessons too? They fly down our residential street where children play.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Kindly ask them to drive those vehicles with care. Those drivers need proper training and lectured to before they are allowed to destroy those vehicles. They are racing through residential areas at very high speed and making sudden stops. No vehicle will last the way they are being driven.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Kindly? I think more like fire the ones who can’t. I hear there are a lot of starving Caymanians that want jobs because they can’t poach turtles.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Branding? Really? These are priorities?

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