More than 12,000 tons of scrap metal have been shipped from Cayman since April 2019, as officials at the Department of Environmental Health look to clear a backlog of ‘legacy waste’.
“The amount of scrap metal from the legacy remaining at the George Town Landfill is unknown as some materials pre-date accurate records being kept; however, it is estimated at many thousands of tons,” a DEH spokesperson told the Compass in an email.
Some of the scrap metal is thought to date back to September 2004, when Hurricane Ivan ravaged Grand Cayman, leaving thousands without shelter and causing island-wide damage to its infrastructure. Each year since then, the DEH is said to have collected more scrap metal than it has shipped out.
Between 2019 and 2021, the scales at the George Town landfill recorded 15,687 tons of incoming scrap metal and derelict vehicles.
“The rate of removal of scrap metal has increased significantly in the past year with the investment in new handling and baling equipment,” said the DEH spokesperson, who added that since April last year, 12,475 tons of scrap metal had been shipped off island, compared to the 3,379 tons which was collected over that same time.
In November 2019, a consortium of companies led by the Dart group was contracted to begin clearing the backlog of legacy waste by shipping out scrap metal to recyclers in the US and across the Caribbean.
The removal of the scrap metal is a crucial part of the National Solid Waste Management Strategy.
The scrap metal is excavated from the landfill, and divided into smaller portions which are loaded onto dump trucks. From there, the metal is hauled across town to the Cayman Islands Port Authority dock along Seafarers Way in George Town, where it is loaded tightly packed onto a barge.
“The contract for the legacy scrap metal is a bulk movement of the materials by barge and the project aim is to remove all legacy scrap from the site,” the DEH spokesperson said.
Because the total amount of scrap metal remaining at the landfill is unknown, it is not clear when the last of it will be removed.
Related Videos
How much do the dump truck owners get for each load, this is big business for them, in addition to all the capping fill they carry in the opposite direction.