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Residents Soncha Sargeant (left), Mark Maloney and Kevin Blackman shaking hands with Project Manager at the Solid Waste Project Unit, Ricardo Marshall, as they receive the recycle bins during Saturday’s launch. (C. Pitt/BGIS)

There is less waste going to the Mangrove Pond Landfill now than in 2005, and this is largely being attributed to ongoing recycling efforts.

Project Manager at the Solid Waste Project Unit, Ricardo Marshall, made this disclosure last Saturday as he delivered the feature address during the official launch of the Community Curbside Recycling Programme at the Villages at Coverley, Christ Church.

Mr. Marshall told residents that in 1993 the landfill received an average of 300 tonnes of garbage daily, a figure which increased to 1, 000 tonnes a day in 2005. However, he noted that the amount of waste going to the landfill now had returned to 1993 levels as a result of more people recycling their garbage.

He explained that evidence suggests that over the last four years, more than 70 per cent of solid waste was diverted from the landfill, thereby increasing its lifespan and overall sustainability.

"The development of facilities such as the Solid Waste Management Centre at Vaucluse in St. Thomas represents and reflects a successful Public Private Partnership arrangement, between the Government of Barbados and the Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre," he said. He added that the recycling centre also worked alongside the Sanitation Service Authority, in partnership with other recyclers, to reduce the volume of waste going to the landfill.

Mr. Marshall stressed that comprehensive solid waste management represented one singular objective with respect to Government’s overall policy framework to develop Barbados into a green economy.

"The fact that I am in front of you this evening is irrefutable evidence that this elevated perception has become our new culture with respect to solid waste management," he said.

Mr. Marshall told residents that the recycling programme also represented a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between themselves and B’s Recycling and Ace Recycling. "These PPP arrangements are in no way accidental strategies, because it is the clear vision that Government must continue to facilitate and foster these relationships where ever necessary to ensure that both sectors thrive equally," he stated.

Representative of the Villages at Coverley, Mark Maloney, told those present that recycling was an important way for individuals and businesses to reduce the waste they generated and reduce the negative impact of that waste on the environment.

"It conserves our natural resources, saves landfill space, conserves energy and reduces water pollution, air pollution and the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming," he said.

Mr. Maloney added that the revolutionary development was committed to recycling programmes and would support all initiatives by homeowners and commercial tenants in the process.

julia.rawlins-bentham@barbados.gov.bb

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