A lobby group dedicated to finding a solution to Cayman’s growing mountain of garbage says the government’s tender bid invitation for a waste management system fails to fully address the problem.
WISE, which stands for Waste Initiatives and Sustainable Environments, is concerned the government’s request for proposals to create alternative garbage disposal methods does not require bidders to fix or reverse the environmental dangers of the existing landfill, which is leaching pollutants into the North Sound.
“This government’s previously expressed intention to ensure the dump’s environmental hazards are adequately addressed is admirable and deserving of public support. However, it is inconsistent with the request for proposals which does not require, or even state, a desired objective to remediate the George Town landfill,” a statement by the group this week said.
The government issued a request for proposals for a comprehensive
solid waste disposal management and waste-to-energy facility in October. The bid invitation was extended until 3 December, and according to comments made by Premier McKeeva Bush in the Legislative Assembly earlier this month, has already received at least 21 bids.
“Since the RFP came out a few weeks ago, we’ve been studying it and getting technical advice,” says WISE committee member Theresa Leacock-Broderick.
“We were obviously very pleased with the fact that the RFP calls for a ‘comprehensive approach to waste management’. That was a term WISE used, so I guess, in a sense, we can declare a small victory as a primary objective was to try to influence broadening the scope of the request for proposals. However, what has been shocking is that there is no clear requirement for remediation of the site,” she says.
WISE’s standpoint is that while reducing the height of the dump would alleviate the visual eyesore, “effectively stopping the leaching into the North Sound and avoiding air, odour and noise pollutants should be among the higher-order criteria applied by the government decision-makers,” a statement from the lobby group said.
It continued: “As far as the aesthetics of the dump are concerned, aggressively remediating and capping the landfill – in other words, remedying the environmental hazards, then covering with the impermeable layers and green landscaping – remains the most expedient way of reversing the ills of the dump, both visually and environmentally.”
The group says a site characterisation study has yet to be carried out at the landfill and that is the only way to determine the extent of remediation methods that may be needed.
WISE is also concerned that, although the tender bid invitation does not rule out an alternative site, it states that the existing dump is the preferred site. The group says that the 70-acre site is too small to develop a fully comprehensive solid waste disposal facility on and that the public and the government must be prepared to develop a new site, or a combination of sites, elsewhere for sorting, recovering and recycling rubbish.
The organisation is also critical of the lack of detail on recycling targets in the request for proposals. “At a minimum, the goals set forth in the 2008 Draft Development Plan should be adopted. This would ensure at least 12 per cent is recycled with that target increasing to 32 per cent over the following 20 years,” the group’s statement said.
It is also concerned that a waste-to-energy approach is not the most economically viable option and could lead to increasing tipping and garbage disposal fees for the public.
The waste-to-energy process would involve mining and burning the waste and converting it into electricity, which is then sold to the Caribbean Utilities Company for distribution.
Who is WISE?
In September this year, WISE started making its voice heard and began holding public meetings to inform the public of what could be done and to get feedback from the many individuals who have strong opinions about the so-called Mount Trashmore.
The group has about 125 members from sectors of Cayman’s community including: financial services, tourism, health care, import, wholesale and retail companies, as well as some associations and concerned individuals.
As well as Leacock-Broderick, its committee members include Pilar Bush; Berna Cummins; and Ian Dawson-James.
Leacock-Broderick says the public meetings served as a two-way means of communication, with attendees sharing information and concerns with WISE that helped inform the group’s future presentations. “What was interesting about those presentations was the amount of discussion and feedback, which contributed to our process of further understanding and development. With each meeting, we ended up tweaking our presentation to add more information and provide greater clarity on things that people brought to the forefront,” she says.
She does not anticipate more public meetings but says information and updates will be posted on the WISE website, at www.wise.ky. “The next part of our campaign is to highlight key issues and use visuals to help people make a distinction between what we have not at the George Town landfill and potentially what it would look like if it was capped,” she says.
Mount Trashmore started as a garbage landfill in 1983. Since then, it has grown to 80 feet high at its highest point.
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