AE Recycling Query July 2011

AE Recycling Query – July 2011

Our Environmental Committee would like to know how many other Caribbean Islands are actively involved in recycling initiatives such as cans, glass and cardboard and if so to what percentage level. Here in the USVI we only recycle aluminum cans and it’s only a small percentage of businesses that are doing it. There are some Government programs offering receptacles however we still have to transport the cans to the recycling plant and the return barely covers the cost of labor and transportation so businesses don’t feel incented to “do the right thing”.

Thank you for your feedback and any best practices you can share.

Lisa Hamilton

President

USVI Hotel & Tourism Association

ANTIGUA

In Antigua the Rotary Club of Antigua Sundown of which I am a member with funding from the UN and British High Commission established a recycling plant in 2005. We currently process all plastic bottles, aluminum cans and scrap metals. Just last month the facility received a baler to process cardboard. We have also tried car batteries, printer cartridges.
Support from Government has been erratic to little to non existent and as you say there is little money in recycling. The plant can only really survive on revenues from scrap metal with the bottles and cans being more of a service to the environment. Every other week I coordinate a volunteers Saturday morning to encourage different groups to come and help us sort bottles for a couple of hours. This allows the staff to concentrate on the revenue generating side.

Most of the larger hotels support the initiative but getting 100% support is difficult. The local support is mixed, nearly every school on the island must have at some stage done a field trip to the plant but getting the population to think recycling is hard. I have tried via a Facebook page “ABWREC” but amazing how little interest there is.

The plant has a website that you can look at, it is

GRENADA

Very touchy subject – I have been advocating and lobbying for recycling to no avail so far.

Grenada has no programmes for recycling apart from the Carib Beer company which reuses its bottles, the same applies to a lesser degree to the rum factories and a one man band collecting scrap metal which he ships to Trinidad.

BAHAMAS

NO LEGISLATED RECYCLING PROGRAM

VOLUNTEER PROGRAM FOR ALUMINUM AND CARDBOARD HAS SUPPORT OF SEVERAL MAJOR HOTELS BUT NOT MAJORITY

ST. LUCIA

St.Lucia does not now have any official recycling centres or recycling activities albeit the issue is under “active consideration” by the current Government… There are also a number of private businesses (both local and foreign) that have indicated interest in initiating such a venture but none have actually started.

There is nevertheless a private individual who unofficially operates a “recycling” business wherein he collects and separates waste material and ships the applicable detritus to Trinidad.

There are a number of existing and some developing re-cycling initiatives in Saint Lucia:

Beer Bottles are re-cycled by the Windward & Leeward Islands Brewery
Non-ferrous metals are collected and shipped out, I believe to Trinidad
Waste Oil is collected and used to power furnaces at the Distillery and the Clay Tiles factory.
Waste cooking oil is being collected for conversion to bio-Diesel
Waste bananas are being collected for conversion to bio-Ethanol.

A draft bill to enforce a refundable deposit system on all plastic bottles has been circulated for comments. The SLHTA, through its Environmental Committee is active in seeking to ensure that the bill is amended and enacted. We are organizing a consultation on this issue in August with a view to establishing the feasibility of some re-cycling on a local scale to avoid the inefficiency of transporting the bottles around the island.

St. Maarten

St. Maarten (well the Dutch side) has not embarked on any recycling initiatives. Anyone who wants to recycle must take their recycled items to the plant on the French side of the island.

ANGUILLA

Anguilla, has only now started talking about recycling, but not in any great detail. Three years ago, the AHTA, implemented a major annual island clean up, but we do not have any option of recycling. Sorry to say. We continue to plug for this.

BARBADOS

We do have a few waste brokers on island. One main and well known one who accepts almost everything for recycling/reuse – ALL bottles (plastic and glass including shampoo, dishwashing liquid and laundry detergent, ketchup, rum etc.), cans, plastic bags, cardboard, car batteries and more, one who focuses mostly on scrap metal and another who does magazines and other paper. We also have another who accepts electronic waste (e-waste). Many of the hotels especially ones that are green certified and some other member companies do utilise the services of these brokers especially the first one as he is more widely known and offers a collection service.

The green certified hotels will do it as part of their certification process and in order to maintain their certification. The money they get from it is used to fund the hotel’s/company’s green team and its activities. Otherwise it is done on a voluntary basis.

As part of the green economy thrust the Government is now seeking to pilot various programmes to introduce large scale recycling in neighbourhoods. Some homes, school and communities however already do a bit of recycling on their own.

CURACAO

SELIKOR ( Curacao Waste Company) has a new waste drop off center

In order to increase the separation of waste type and to stimulate recycling, a waste drop-off center was constructed at the Malpais Landfill.

All personal vehicles, pick-up trucks, and small dump trucks no longer deposit their waste on the active portion of the landfill, but are now directed to drive through the drop-off center. In the center, the transported waste are separated by type (e.g. yard waste, glass, metals, cardboard, etc.) and placed in the designated container. Once the containers are full they will be removed and replaced with an empty one. Each type of waste will then be transported to the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to be recycled and what cannot be recycled will be transported to the landfill for disposal. Very large trucks and Selikor garbage trucks will continue to deposit their waste directly on the active portion of the landfill.

Waste Drop-Off Center

The center is designed with a “driving-through” concept, where a vehicle with waste will drive through and stop at different containers to deposit the different types of waste. There is a separate containers for yard waste, for metals, for construction and demolition waste, for tires, for plastics, for glass, and for non-recyclable garbage.

The center has other drop-off areas for such wastes as asbestos, hazardous wastes, batteries, white goods (e.g. stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.) and brown goods (e.g. televisions, computers, electronics, etc). So once a vehicle has finished “driving through” the platform, it will drive along these other areas to drop off these other types of waste, if necessary. Click here too see layout.

The recyclable waste materials are transporting by truck, container, or ship to a local or foreign end user or to a broker. Brokers are involved in the marketing of processed materials to end users. Brokers play an important role in the recycling loop as they assure the availability of needed quality and quantity of materials to end users. They pool the outputs of several processors and arrange for shipment of the materials to the end users. Glass, metal, paper, cardboard, and batteries are some of the waste materials that are collected on Curaçao and shipped by Selikor to foreign end users.

Aluminum Recycling

Green Force Curacao offers Aluminum Recycling bins for rent. The rent is used to cover the costs of the bin, finance their activities and it includes a pickup of the goods twice a month. Green Force will make sure the collected materials end up in the recycling stream, this way they will be reused instead of dumped at the landfill.

The funds coming from the activities of Green Force are used to sustain the operations of the company, improve the quantity of materials being collected, collaborate with environmental programs and activities, such as clean up actions, help in the protection of wildlife, contribute to the education of the youth and in the near future, to buy equipment and technology necessary to process the aluminum ourselves and expand to other recyclable materials.

We have no exact info in percentages to share yet.

BONAIRE

Bonaire is in the midst of having recycling of:

- glass

- construction waste

- aluminum cans

- paper

Separate collection of materials, most will be shipped to Holland for either recycling or proper disposal:

- plastic bottles

- batteries

- oil and fat

- metal (incl car wrecks etc)

- clothes

I am sure more will be added down the line.

I cannot give you percentages yet, the start of implementation (and raising more awareness) is end of this summer, legislation is not coming before January 2012.

BERMUDA

In Bermuda for both residents and business the recycling of aluminum and glass is encouraged and has some success with residential homes as the Government collects. Our hotels are very conscious about green initiatives and arrange for the collection of their recyclables by private contract. This continues to be a work in progress.

Cozumel Island

The local government has a contract with two companies, one who collects the trash and other the recyclables.

10 Cozumel hotels are in the MARTI program (Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative) but Riviera Maya has 120 in the program.

ARUBA
Ecotech

With some hotels, supermarkets, schools and government offices Ecotech already started with the implementation of a source separation system for carton, paper, newspaper and aluminum. Ecotech collects these materials and offers the service of placing dedicated containers at major supermarkets, companies, schools and almost all hotels on the island.

In addition to collection, Ecotech allows “drop off” of carton, paper and aluminum beverage cans of individuals and its businesses at its Barricade based “Waste Separation Plant” (WSP). At this WSP the latest equipment and technology available is being utilized to process these recyclables and prepare them for shipment to secondary material markets worldwide. (Ecotech Website)

Aruba Biodiesel Company

Aruba Biodiesel Company will recycle used cooking oil, engine oil, into biodiesel which is an environmentally friendly alternative fuel. They also will recycle filters & tires.

Ecotech

Aruba Biodiesel Company

Aruba Biodiesel Company will recycle used cooking oil, engine oil, into biodiesel which is an environmentally friendly alternative fuel. They also will recycle filters & tires.