JEDDAH, 21 October 2007 — Over the coming few months, Jeddah Municipality will replace thousands of orange dumpsters with new types of bins and implement a modern rubbish collection program that will help tidy up Jeddah’s streets.

Complaints about filthy bins increased during the recent Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which saw dumpsters in many areas overflowing and rubbish not being collected for several days thus becoming a playground for stray cats and a breeding ground for airborne illnesses that are currently plaguing the city.

Commenting on the reason for the backlog of trash, Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, director of press relations at the municipality, told Arab News that the contracts of rubbish removal companies had expired over the Eid holidays. “The municipality has contracted several companies to remove rubbish from roadsides as well as to empty garbage bins ... the recent problem was caused by the expiration of some of these contracts,” said Al-Ghamdi.

He added that starting Nov. 19 Jeddah municipality will allow for the final contracts with the remaining companies to expire and will then draw up fresh contracts with new companies to launch the city’s new garbage collection program, which includes the replacement of dumpsters before the end of the year.

He added that the government has agreed to increase the municipality’s five-year budget of SR450 million to SR900 million, something that has made it possible for the municipality to go ahead with its previously planned garbage collection program that had been postponed for the past four years due to lack of sufficient funding.

The municipality is also in the process of organizing a number of educational programs to create awareness about the importance of keeping neighborhoods clean. “We at the municipality can’t solve the city’s garbage problem on our own. ... Citizens need to be careful to properly dispose of debris into the bins and not just beside them, as well as not to litter the city’s recreation areas and seaside,” he said.

However, many Jeddah citizens say that members of the public are not the only ones to be blamed for heaping trash on the side of roads and at recreation areas. Garbage diggers who rummage through the bins in search of recyclable items such as aluminum cans, plastic and cardboard, which they then sell at recycling centers, are known to leave bins in a mess.

Some people complain that the problem is further compounded by garbage collectors, who also dig through bins searching for recyclable items before dumping them into trucks. “Garbage collectors should lift the bins and quickly dump them into trucks but instead spend time, make added mess and cause traffic jams while they sift through and separate recyclable items which they put on top of their trucks to sell later,” said Mohammad Al-Otaibi, a Saudi living in the Al-Rawda district.

Imad Bukhari, head of the Cleaning Projects Department at the municipality, said the new bins and the new garbage collection system would help remedy the problem of people rummaging through rubbish. The new dumpsters will be sealed and leave only a little space for people to dump their rubbish.

Members of the public wishing to see the new dumpsters can attend a public showing at the Jeddah Inter Continental Hotel on Oct. 28.