The Flowers Group is working with other local businesses in the hopes of bringing back glass recycling to Cayman.
Dart pulled the plug on its glass-recycling efforts last November citing ‘safety concerns’ as a result of equipment issues.
Frank Flowers Sr., in an emailed comment to the Cayman Compass Monday, said the project is “a work in progress”.
He said he could not release details at the moment.
However, he said the Flowers Group is committed to finding a solution for the island to deal with glass waste.
“We believe that environmental protection and sustainability in the Cayman Islands is essential for us and future generations. The Flowers group is excited to contribute to this effort,” Flowers said.
He added that the group has been getting “positive responses” from other stakeholders and like-minded members of the business community.
“Ideally, with enough government support and buy-in we will be able to bring this project to fruition very shortly,” Flowers said.
In November 2022, the Department of Environmental Health announced that glass would no longer be accepted at its recycling depots across Cayman, saying the move was the result of “our stakeholder’s decision to discontinue the processing of this material”.
That stakeholder was Dart which had been recycling glass in Cayman since 2012 when it bought in a small industrial glass crusher that could grind up glass to be used for road construction or as fill.
However, Dart said after a decade of continuous use, “the glass crusher is nearing the end of its productive life cycle” and it was unable to continue the project.
Long-term recycling
It said in November that it was exploring ways in which short-term operations could resume, “while long term, larger glass recycling options are integrated into ReGen, the Cayman Islands Government’s National Solid Waste Management Strategy”.
ReGen’s financial close is still pending; Premier Wayne Panton has issued multiple extensions for negotiations, the most recent being earlier this month.
He said financial close for the project is now expected by 30 Sept. and the public-private partnership team recently agreed to a new project long-stop date of 30 Nov.
Panton, in December 2022, said government was grateful to Dart for providing the “important service for more than a decade”, acknowledging then that the public was disappointed in what they perceived to be a step backwards on the pathway to sustainable solid waste management.
“While we investigate potential interim solutions, we know ReGen represents the ultimate long-term plan for expanded and improved recycling infrastructure in the Cayman Islands,” Panton said then.
A 2020 Compass special report highlighted that glass bottles weighing 382 tons were processed on island.
A decade ago, Dart said approximately 66 million glass bottles from alcohol alone made their way into the George Town landfill, according to Cayman Distributors.
Dart’s landfill experts estimated at that time that 10% of all waste in Cayman came from glass bottles and jars.
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Well done the Flowers family if it happens.
Perhaps crushed glass can be incorporated in concrete.