Topic: Integrated Solid Waste Management System

A Cayman Compass editorial urges the elected government to take immediate action to resolve the long-standing George Town landfill problem.

The Cayman Islands government has agreed to pay the Dart-led consortium $17.7 million for work the group carried out on the ReGen landfill deal prior to the termination of the agreement.

While Government remains mum on the status of the ReGen project, the opposition is demanding answers from the UPM administration on the future of the multi-million-dollar facility.

If the ReGen waste management facility deal is finalised by its latest projected financial close date of the end of next month, the plant would be up and running by 2027, officials told members of the public at a meeting Monday night.

Government has dismissed concerns around escalating costs associated with the controversial ReGen waste management contract as "misinformation" and suggested a final deal to clean up the landfill and replace it with waste-to-energy and recycling facilities is close.

After years of negotiations, government and a Dart-led consortium signed on the dotted line today to move the multi-million dollar Integrated Solid Waste Management...

Premier Alden McLaughlin says a final contract between government and the Dart group on the future of the George Town landfill, which has been delayed for four years, is likely to be signed before the election in April.

Efforts are under way to determine how much fill material will be required to cap the George Town landfill, and the associated costs, officials said this week.

Remediation of the George Town landfill is expected to begin this month, the Dart group has announced.

In a lengthy speech Friday, Premier Alden McLaughlin outlined the broad strokes of government’s policy agenda through to the end of 2021.

Work to close and remediate the George Town landfill site and replace it with a suite of modern waste management facilities is not expected to begin until the latter part of next year.

It is said that numbers don’t lie, but they certainly can equivocate. We were reminded of that last week by two stories that appeared in the Compass, one about the George Town Landfill and one about unemployment figures.

Cayman Islands residents, businesses and tourists added more than 100,000 tons of waste to the George Town Landfill in 2016, according to data compiled by the Economics and Statistics Office.

The issue is a long-standing toxic eyesore that dominates Grand Cayman’s landscape, presents an odorous nuisance for neighbors and poses a potential health threat to the Cayman Islands public. The George Town Landfill has been a fixture on the political calendar for decades but became a headline-grabbing topic during the United Democratic Party’s 2009-2012 administration.

A team of workers from the National Community Enhancement Project, known as NiCE, is helping to clean up the George Town landfill.

With the recent release of a new report on waste solutions for the Cayman Islands, the public is being invited to hear about what is being proposed.