The Disparities in Waste

Bins galore or Bins no more


What are the parameters for justification of a place being deemed "better" than another? How does waste show us this? 

By examining the amount of waste on the streets and the disposal enmities available in the areas, it becomes evident that there are disparities within the city. The major contrasting areas are the most western end of the Brain Lara promenade near the banks and Twin towers and street blocks north of the promenade nearing the Queens Park Savannah.  

Loretta Lees in The Geography of Gentrification: Thinking Through Comparative Urbanism, highlights the issue of placement and amount of garbage bins present in Seoul, Korea. "One finds a lot more garbage bins in the more popular areas where the celebrities shop. Streets are pristine and flawless but take a walk, a few blocks down, you see the extent of urban decay. Where are the bins?" She relates this to the migration settlement patterns of the lower class who occupy the outskirts of the Central hub of Seoul. Similarly, east Port-of-Spain, while not filled with migrants, replicates the same patterns as described by Lees. The Brian Lara Promenade shows an abundance of bins and a clean area. It is closer to the CBD which accounts for its aesthetic display while upper Port-of-Spain shows the presence of no garbage bins along the road and piles of garbage left on the streets. This brings us back to our post on Organic Waste, where there are very little bins placed along these roads and the ones present are too small to fit large items.

 http://phg.sagepub.com/content/36/2/155.abstract

The Brain Lara Promenade

Clean area and aesthetically pleasing. The further away you are from the eastern side of the city, the cleaner it is and the more bins are present.

Upper Port of Spain

The lack of proper garbage disposal facilities leads to the dumping of waste on sidewalks

Brain Lara Promenade

Along Independence Square, near the business hub of the city, the roads are extremely clean yet there are no garbage bins in sight. What accounts for this? After speaking to a few taxi men, we understood that regulated garbage trucks pick up waste twice a day. This shows that more attention is given to the areas of higher economic importance and political and economic power whereas the local commercial sector is neglected.