Cassandra (n.): 1. Classical mythology: A daughter of Priam and Hecuba; a prophetess cursed by Apollo so that her prophecies, though true, were fated never to be believed. 2. A person who prophesies doom or disaster. The above definition is given as a preamble to this note since the note is essentially a prophecy of what is very likely to happen with respect to recycling in the Virgin Islands. It is often difficult to write this type of note since it is essentially downbeat and the prophecies are generally not pleasant. So the question is whether they should be considered by those who may be able to do something about them.
The government has either sponsored or participated in solid waste surveys, which have covered many of the Caribbean islands that either are still part of the Commonwealth or that have origins as British colonies.
These have included Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, the United States VI, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, Trinidad and Dominica.
There have been multiple reports written concerning waste disposal methods in these countries. One thing is common to note about these reports: They have generally been ignored!
Report
A report was prepared for the VI government providing data on the waste disposal methods then current in Cayman, Bermuda and Trinidad. This report was presumably intended to allow a comparative approach to VI practices — again to allow for a rational approach to the path that the government decided to follow locally. It covered one country (Bermuda) with a rather sophisticated waste system and an incinerator that was both larger and possibly more sophisticated than the one then operational in the VI. The final ash disposal methods were also well suited to the very limited amount of flat, unoccupied land that is available.
The landfills on both Cayman and Trinidad were also, in their own way, more sophisticated than the one on Tortola — at least in as much as some attempt had been made on both islands to practise some form of recycling. Trinidad’s efforts were perhaps rather more successful than Cayman’s.
A later report written for the Pan American Health Organisation (titled “The Little Eight”) assessed the comparative practices in eight members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. In the process of this report, an unintended side effect was the tendency to assess the comparative performance of the waste disposal operation in the various countries. The comparisons were not really a part of the report, but they were inevitable to this reader. No mention was made of the rating in the report.
And where did the VI stand? Even given the high tech presence of the local incinerator, the VI ranked no better than fifth (in a highly biased assessment) out of the eight countries considered. Despite the presence of the high tech means of final disposal, the total absence of recycling (and, indeed, the combination of a lack of interest and a distinct opposition to the concept) weighed heavily against the VI.
It was, in my opinion, rather interesting to note that the three most highly ranked countries (again, in my opinion) all had solid waste departments that were headed up by women! Those leaders knew what they wanted, took pride in their countries and were determined to get to their objectives. And, even if the programmes were not always 100 percent successful, it was not for lack of trying. Size made little difference: One of the three most successful was also the smallest!
Green VI’s work
Charlotte McDevitt, the executive director of Green VI, has perhaps contributed more to the environmental programmes in the VI since her arrival on Tortola than any other single person.
Green VI is a very worthy successor to the BVI Recycling Committee, which was headed up by Julie Overing. Green VI is at least attempting to do something about the local glass problem. And the artistry and quality of the tourist-oriented products the group makes from recycled glass is indeed very good. But the operation was never really intended to fully solve the overall problem. It is factually too small in size to make a truly significant difference in the overall glass problem. But it points the way towards solutions based on recovery, recycling and reuse — and hence to solutions to the overall solid waste problem.
Green VI is currently involved in attempting to obtain a grant from the United Kingdom government to establish one or more recycling facilities in the VI. And I wish the group all the luck in the world in a truly important effort. In addition, Ms. McDevitt has ideas that may lead to an overall reduction in the amount of waste that we generate.
But, in accordance with the definition at the beginning of this note, her chances of success are highly dependent on the way that both government and the public choose to support her efforts. And, to date, most of that support has been verbal. Such support costs little, and generally achieves just about what you might expect. But unless we decide to take real action, the territory may well be headed for serious trouble, which will have its effect on our living standards and national income because our main source of income, tourism, suffers when our appearance deteriorates continually. A critical look at our surroundings should easily show some of the results of our continued poor practices and care of our surroundings.
The waste stream
If we wish to begin recycling from the local waste stream, it is obviously first necessary to look at the characteristics of that waste stream. In combination with that consideration, we would do well to re-examine the experiences of other jurisdictions. These characteristics are quite possibly out of date, but the ideas have not changed very much over the years.
The percentages given below are those that were used in the design of the old 40-ton-per-day incinerator. No similar figures were developed for the current 100-ton-per-day unit. It is, however, probable that the relative waste profile has not changed much since 1987. And it is certain that the total waste quantity has increased — although not to the 100-ton-per-day level that was the basis for the design of the new Consutech incinerator. This note assumes that the average waste generation rate is in reality 75 tons per day.
• Glass makes up about 18 percent of the waste stream (18.5 tons per day?). It is thought to be mostly beer bottles, and thought to be mostly green. Recycling will be dependent on recovery — which in turn will probably be dependent on the establishment of some form of “deposit/return” system by the government. The original proposal of 1993 met with substantial opposition from various merchants and from several prominent citizens. There was no government support.
A later recovery effort was initially successful but failed when (again) the government failed to support the return of crushed glass to a recycling facility in Puerto Rico. In addition, collection from the satellite collection stations did not really succeed.
The Green VI operation was never intended to handle this amount of glass. Nor, in all probability, is there a real, long-term market for this type of tourist-oriented product that would lead to this being a full solution to what has always led to serious problems in the incinerator. But it is an effort — and at present really the only effort — towards what might become a solution.
• Corrugated paper makes up 33 percent of the waste stream (26.5 tons per day?). It is thought to come primarily from packaging of incoming products, and does not really burn particularly well in the incinerator. It is not too difficult to separate manually, but must be machine baled for shipment. It cannot be reprocessed on-island. Composting might work, but would require substantial amounts of flat land and the addition of substantial amounts of nitrogen-rich fertiliser to supply the needs of the composting organisms.
Cayman installed a baling system for corrugated paper, which worked. But then they discovered that there was no market for recycled corrugated paper from the Caribbean. The problem was that a) no one wanted our insects (termites) and b) the cost of shipping was prohibitive. The effort on Cayman died. There is some indication that a new market may be opening up on Puerto Rico.
• Metals make up about nine percent of the waste stream (seven tons per day?). This comes from a variety of sources, including soft drink cans, construction materials and derelict vehicles. The major source is the derelict vehicles, which are currently handled behind the horse track in Sea Cows Bay. The derelict vehicles are very minimally prepared and then crushed and crudely baled. They are shipped off island for use in the production of new metal. In reality, the metal should be sorted by type (aluminium, steel, copper, galvanised and so on), but this is very seldom done locally. The last batch of baled metal was parked in front of the old Government Information Services office forever! It looked great! Bermuda does a better job of preparing the derelict vehicles and uses the baled metal for marine breakwaters.
Here, the aluminium can recycling programme failed because the public would not separate their garbage out between bins that were clearly labeled. And the dedicated people who cleared the bins and freighted the cans to Nautool found that there was little or no return for their efforts. This lasted about six months before failing. There was also a complication in that cans with steel tops were unacceptable. This is no longer the case.
Aluminium cans generally vaporise in the incinerator, thereby contributing to metal pollution downwind. Whether the promised scrubber (which may or may not be physically possible to install) will help or not is an open question.
Other wastes
• Plastics make up six percent of the waste stream (five tons per day?). They burn well in the incinerator, but when burned in the presence of cellulose (corrugated paper) they may lead to the formation of dioxins and furans — both known carcinogens.
Recycling of plastics is practical, and the recycled plastics can be used to make a variety of products. But successful recycling requires detailed sorting of the nine plastic types. Machine sorting is impractical, so manual sorting is required. Each plastic container is labeled at the time of manufacture as to type. Trinidad recycles plastic after manual sorting. No local reprocessing is carried out.
• Putrescibles and yard waste make up about four percent of the waste stream (three tons per day?). Both can be handled by composting. The yard waste will require shredding using the new solid waste chipper grinder.
Bermuda operates a composting facility that looks much like an oversized wagon wheel where the material is rotated around a circle until it is fully reduced to a material usable in agriculture. Peter Island also operated a composting scheme at one time.
• Pallets make up an unknown percentage of the waste stream. They cannot be recycled as insects are a major problem. They burn very poorly in the incinerator unless manually broken up.
Breaking even
As a generalised statement, any company that undertakes to operate a recycling scheme will do well to break even financially. Experience in jurisdictions that do recycle generally shows that the operations can only be run as a part of the government operated (and subsidised) solid waste disposal programme.
If a recycling programme is indeed set up on Tortola, the government had better count on operating it at a substantial loss. The idea of “selling” the operation to a private operator does not seem to have much financial future on a countrywide basis.
No one ever said that solid waste disposal was inexpensive!
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