The company that manages the Duquesa landfill site in Santo Domingo, the Lajun Corporation, reported yesterday, Tuesday 14 May, that nighttime use in the first 13 nights is not enough to maintain their 24/7 operations. The company said that in the first 13 nights the landfill was open after 10pm they received only seven dump trucks with an average of 20 tons each and four compactor trucks with 10 tons, or 180 tons. The total represents the average that Lajun had hoped to receive each day during the nighttime hours in order to manage the dumpsite effectively.
“We are expecting an average of between 160 and 200 tons a night in order to cover the expenses,” said the manager for the Lajun Corp, Max Da Silva.
According to Da Silva, the operational costs during the night are RD$1,600,000 which they paid in April and which the project needs to pay again in May.
“We formally communicated with the National District City Government, which is the only one that has suggested this, and asked them to take on the expenses of the operation, so that we can continue to operate 24 hours,” said Da Silva.
The director of Urban Cleaning and Equipment for the National District City Government, Oscar Garcia Arias, admitted that the process of nighttime garbage collection has been slow. “We have made it clear that setting up the routes will be a slow process, which will take time. First, we begin working until two in the morning with the transfer unit. Now we have six trucks, which will be eight tomorrow (today, Wednesday 15 May). But you have to understand that the process is slow,” said Garcia Arias. The city official said that he would propose working until two in the morning in order to reduce costs as well as the reduction of some machines. “The increase in the workday is going on gradually, because we have been able to observe some behavior, such as the amount of garbage; so for this reason we have made the proposal to Lajun so that they adopt this measure, in order to reduce the costs,” he said.