Solid move

Teron Walker (left) throwing a big die in a game called Waste Busters as fellow player Terece Walker and volunteer Cherice Gibson (right) look on. (Picture by Nigel Browne.)

By Carlos Atwell | Sun, February 12, 2012 - 12:05 AM

Barbadians are responding to the call to recycle, says Minister of the Environment Dr Denis Lowe.

In his address yesterday during the fourth 4Rs Fair at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Lowe said the majority of solid waste formerly going to the landfill was now being used by recyclers.

“There is conclusive empirical evidence to show that over the last three years, with the continued commitment and dedicated efforts primarily of the exhibitors present here today and also of the general public, there has been a more than 70 per cent diversion of the solid waste from the nation’s landfill,” he added.

Lowe said the fair was further proof that Barbadians were changing their perspective concerning solid waste – “from a worthless by-product to be utilized, either through reuse, recycling or recovery efforts”.

Waste management coordinator with the Solid Waste Project Unit, Thora Lorde, said they were seeing a “definite” difference in the mindsets of Barbadians, as evidenced by the increase of exhibitors – around ten when the fair began five years ago (they skipped a year) to 24 yesterday – and public participation.

“We don’t only have recyclers participating but schools and churches as well. Right now we are trying to get a definitive look at how many Barbadians are recycling with a knowledge, awareness and perception survey, which should be done in a couple of months,” she said.

Lorde said the 4Rs stood for reduce, reuse, recycle and recover, with the fourth “R” pertaining to Government’s energy capture programme.

“We are looking at the possibility of getting energy from waste such as through burning and capturing energy for electricity or using the gas produced in the landfill for electricity.”

In his speech, Lowe said that Government had decided to build a green energy complex that would provide a source of alternative energy by incorporating waste to energy, fill gas to energy, solar energy and possibly wind energy.

Lorde said the 4Rs Fair was important as it was necessary to reduce waste going into the landfill in order to conserve land space.

“We need to reduce the amount of waste we produce, otherwise we will have to look for some place to store it and with Barbados being land scarce, we can’t take up land which could be used for housing, tourism and agriculture just to bury waste,” she said.