Cayman producing 5 x average global trash rate
(CNS): The Cayman Islands must do better at reducing the amount of rubbish it generates even as the country awaits a deal with Dart to take over the waste-management programme. A new report from the Office of the Auditor General found that the government has made no progress on targets set more than seven years ago to cut the amount of trash going to the dump every day. Each person in Cayman produces around five kilos of waste per day, more than five times the global average. But there are almost no strategies in place to help reduce commercial or residential waste.
In a new report released Monday, Auditor General Sue Winspear and her team focused on how Cayman is fairing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other environmental-related targets that governments have set over the last few years. While she has found the government is generally far behind on almost all sustainability-related targets, there are some areas where things are particularly bad.
When it comes to waste management, despite spending almost a decade planning to address the country’s dependence on an unsustainable landfill, improvements are extremely limited. In 2014 the government published a strategic policy statement that set the ball rolling for a waste-to-energy facility. Over the last ten years, the situation in relation to waste management has not improved at all, despite Dart’s efforts to cover up the old Mount Trashmore.
The audit office found that prior to 2017, the government’s data on rubbish was not measured properly and was inaccurate. But over the last six years, the waste produced per head has increased, and each person now generates an average of 11 pounds every day, more than five times the global average. In 2021 each person in the Cayman Islands generated about 3,600 pounds of waste throughout the year.
Cayman has a small population relative to the number of tourists that come to the islands each year, leading to an assumption that this must skew the numbers. But there is no clear link, and what limited evidence there is appears to show that visitors are not adding a significant amount to the rubbish pile.
In 2019, when the Cayman Islands’ population was about 70,000 and had around 2.3 million cruise and stay-over tourists, the country generated over 133,000 tons of rubbish. But in 2020, when the total number of visitors for the year fell dramatically due to COVID and the resident population dropped slightly, the total waste generated actually increased over the previous year. In 2021 it fell to 126,000 tons, but the rubbish generated by residents and businesses here is still among the highest in the world per head.
While generating significant amounts of rubbish, only around 2% was recycled, according to the OAG report. But that fell in 2021 and likely declined even more recently with the end of glass recycling. Since Dart announced it was not replacing its glass crusher, which it had been using to divert the country’s used glass into construction and fill, glass is now being sent to the landfill.
Winspear described the amount of waste being recycled as negligible, adding that it is significantly lower than other leading global economies. But countries with high recycling rates generally have government policies that make it easy for households to recycle waste, as well as funding and financial incentives, clear performance targets and policy objectives, none of which appears to exist here.
In March 2021, the government signed a project agreement with Waste Solutions Cayman Ltd, a consortium led by the Dart Group, the country’s largest developer and wealthiest land owner, for an integrated solid waste management system (ISWMS). The ReGen project is a public–private partnership where Dart et al will design, finance, build, operate and maintain the ISWMS in return for monthly payments from the government.
Negotiations on that deal do not appear to have gone very well. Premier Wayne Panton, who is leading the talks, has stated on a number of occasions that the March agreement appears to have been premature, given the cost gaps and other unresolved issues. The discussions towards financial close are ongoing and are now expected to be concluded in May 2023, some five and a half years after Dart was selected as the preferred bidder.
It is now unclear when the facility will be operational, but the government has indicated that it will be until at least the end of 2026 before the main component of the waste-to-energy plant is finished.
The decision to focus on burning garbage to create renewable energy will undermine the incentive to educate the country or introduce policies to encourage more sustainable approaches to waste management, such as reducing the quantity and type of goods we import or facilitating reuse, up-cycling and composting, as well as traditional recycling.
Although the auditor general did not look at plans by the government to introduce a single-use plastic ban, that local goal also appears to have stalled. While the impact of COVID was cited as the reason for the delay in rolling out the ban in January 2021, a revised target of October 2022 has been and gone. The PPM-led government created a steering committee in July 2019 to shape a policy to ban some single-use plastics, such as plastic bags, straws and take-out food containers. That committee has not met since.
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Category: Environmental Health, Health
Is it just me or is the perception that MOSt of the trash is generated by our House of Parliament??
I always use my shopping plastic bags in my waste baskets, at least they get used twice. I never buy small plastic bags for the small waste baskets.
Why do you ever use plastic shopping bags? You are part of the problem!
Mr. Premier I hope every person in the world read this headline. This is bad for the envoirnmemt and bad publicity as well.
Easy solution to make a major reduction: stop cruise tourism.
“ The cost of the cruise industry, both financially and ecologically, likely outweighs the benefits for the Cayman Islands, a leading Caribbean economist has said…
Speaking to business leaders and politicians at the RF Cayman Economic Outlook conference held last week at the Kimpton Seafire Resort, she said the cruise industry in particular is likely a net drag on the islands’ economy as well as its environment.
Citing survey data that shows cruise passenger spending around at US$50 per head, she questioned whether this even covered the “cost of cleaning up after them”…
Citing her own experience, stepping over trash as she jogged on Seven Mile Beach, she suggested mass tourism was negatively impacting the environment and the experience of visitors.
She added, “I think from an ecological standpoint the tourism industry is a net cost to the country.”
Asked by Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan if Cayman was right to emphasise ‘quality over quantity’, she suggested tackling the cruise industry was key to this goal.“
https://www.caymancompass.com/2023/03/22/economist-cruise-profits-not-worth-the-cost/
CIG should not be allowed to trumpet sustainability, climate change etc whilst simultaneously sticking their heads in the sand with respect to the dump (that grows larger by the day). Time you put the (taxpayer) money where your mouth is.
PACT is a joke, only uses DEO and other agencies to penalize Caymanians but developers get off FREE.
Wayne – its high time that you started making some actual decisions of consequence. Why have you still not signed the waste management contract?
Do a transparent RFP and select the company that can do the best job at the lowest price free from political influence. Do this and the amount of waste Cayman has won’t really matter because it will be turned into power, jet fuel, hydrogen, etc.
Whether the Cayman Civil Service can conduct a fair and proper RFP process is my biggest concern.
In addition to the glass crusher, we should also get a chipper/mulcher for all the yard waste from landscaping and land clearing. That can be used as mulch, or composted for the garden. Give it away free and keep it out of the waste stream.
or use it as a bio fuel
On the bright side, Cayman is #1 in something!
As we start the conversion of SMB into 10 story towers, where will all the construction waste go from both the tear down of the existing buildings and construction of the new ones? Does Lacovia have to pay for the demolition of the existing structure when it is dumped in the landfill? Do they recycle any of the existing appliances/HVAC/kitchens?
Very good point everything is approved with no environmental impact study ..all large waste producers ie hotel’s construction sites should have the waste they generate dealt with prior to leaving the location .let’s hope that the next generation have the strength to force reform .what’s gone Before including my generation we have failed so badly
but we are caymankind!……zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
is the 11 pounds of waste per day an actual estimate of what is produced by each person per day, or is that including all of the waste created by the demolished buildings, renovation waste, landscaping waste, etc etc etc?
Has to be the latter. Definitely a case of comparing apples with oranges
We got a glass crusher yet? The weight of all that glass gotta be a huge contributor here!
Let’s get Deloitte to write a report on why we should investigate getting a glass crusher
Investigate? Nothing to investigate. Just get it done.
that would be too simple/smart for cig and civil service.
You’ve been whooshed.
No effort at all by vendors to bring in biodegradable containers containing milk, juices food etc etc, pure profit. Then your asking us to do better?
Govt get a grip this place is tiny. Sort it out man
The irony: milk is right at the top of the unsustainable list along with steaks.
Get a grip… Your kill count for soy beans is higher than me eating a steak. Any idea how many animals are killed whilst harvesting crops and plowing fields? Izza lot!
Behavioral changes on diet choices is a central IPCC mitigation with plant based noted over 400 times in 2022’s AR6.
Why don’t WE, the us in your statement, actually do better? Why don’t we compost and make efforts to not purchase things with non degradeable plastics and other material.
Why don’t we all come to the realisation that the government will do nothing. There is no field, area or discipline which the government can operate in and be reasonably effective or efficient. So, why don’t we actually do it ourselves instead of crying about it and shouting the usual.. “someone should do something”… be that someone. Let’s all be that someone
Liquor bottles weigh what they weigh. Little I can do about it.
…to take over the waste-management programme…
Is there a Programme?
Doubtful there is even a framework overview of a plan. Certainly haven’t been maintenance or amortization schedules as we’ve come to learn.
Don’t let Caymanians try and solve the issue as it will take decades to make a decision.
And if you keep importing 3rd world labor you get much more litter. They NO education about litter and don’t care as they are here to make money and go home.
Everyone is to blame. You, me, the third world we import and the rich we import. Everyone on this island has fallen victim to believing that if we complain about it on social media that we are doing our part for the climate. Just like some of us believe if we wear colourful socks we have done our part for world down syndrome day.
We all care about convenience more than the causes we say we do and its catching up with us. Asking someone else to fix it is part of the problem. Everyone is too lazy and wouldn’t give up a single convenience to achieve what they try to convince everyone else that they want so badly.
Maybe start recycling?
Can’t even get them to clean up after themselves on the beaches. Asking them to think about something? Too far.
What do you expect when recycling is completely voluntary and you have so few locations to collect!
If I lived further East, I wouldn’t be recycling either.
And even if you do make effort, can’t recycle most plastic, can’t recycle a pizza box, and now can’t even recycle glass!
honestly even recycling is just a bandaid, very little trash is actually recyclable. That little triangle of arrows you see on plastic bottles? yah, that’s not actually a gov. stamp or anything, it means nothing and is just there to trick the consumer into thinking they are helping. We need a rapid shift away from single use items, forced obsolescence in consumer goods and patrolium based products like plastics and styrofoam.
We also need laws requiring food sellers to donate food that cannot be sold, stores like priced right and cost u less destroy literal tons of food a week that have nothing wrong with it but just damaged packaging or errors in branding. I know this for a fact because I worked there and had to feed the massive compacter they have out back. We distroyed cart fulls of vegetables and canned goods just because they didnt sell and we needed shelf space.
From a consumer ecology standpoint there is a lot more waste going into our imported everyday purchases than we can perceive. A single 1/3lb hamburger patty consumes 660 gallons of fresh water, uses 300ft2 of land, and generates equivalent of 20lbs of C02. The IPCC has pointed out energy transition mitigations along with need for material behavioral change. We need to audit our consumer habits, with a focus on food itself, and especially a honest view towards the unsustainable resource intensity of meat and dairy.
Stop making it up
“It’s not just the way we produce and use energy,” said Christopher Trisos, director of the Climate Risk Lab in the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town and a member of the core writing team for the synthesis report. “It’s the way we consume food, the way we protect nature”
Food and Climate Change:
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/food
Start by banning Styrofoam, oh wait, nevermind!
all this talk about recycling when in reality most of it ends up in the landfill of a 3rd world country.
If we had a competent waste to energy solution then this would not be a big deal. I say burn baby burn!
All the hotels need to recycle. It’s a disgrace handing out daily plastic water bottles that go into the general garbage (no marked bins in our 5* hotels!!). Even better would be to give out a reusable bottle to be filled at water stations throughout the properties. They even manage that in Africa!! Plastic banned by Kenya for example.
Can’t we buy a glass crusher from the environmental fund? And get all bars & restaurants on board, in addition to the hotels!!!
Why the down votes? What do you disagree with? It doesn’t take much effort or dollars!!!
Three people who prefer to throw their trash into the shrubs.
Personally, I find the statement “ they even manage that in Africa!” to be offensive. Could have made the point without it.
Most African countries are chronically mismanaged so it’s a perfectly valid observation.
how much bad news can pact take???
i know there is no accountability in cig or civil service….but this is like bad joke on repeat…
welcome to wonderland
wait… are really laying decades of mismanagement at the feet of the government body that only started existing 3 years ago?
i mean, they are in charge so the responsibility for fixing it at the moment lies with them, but to act like this is a problem that they caused in the last 3 years is a bit demented don’t you think? hell, the cry of fix the dump! is so well known it’s a meme at this point.
Let it burn!
If this is true, then we only needed 20,000 population to create the 100,000 population WTE breakeven. ReGen will have to pay us now!
I’m shocked about the amount of people I know who DO NOT recycle and Yes, I know they don’t when I visit their homes. SHAMEFUL really. It’s not that hard! Because I recycle, I only generate less than a garbage can full of crap per week. When I didn’t it was EASILY 3+ cans per week.
Stop being lazy people, it’s not that hard.
So true! We have Junk pick up our recycling because the government can’t get their act together to implement mandatory recycling in island.
OK, but do you know what Junk really does with the recycling they pick up?
Do you know of any 100K population town that is NOT affiliated with a larger population centre that has mandatory recycling?
Yes I do, and if you took the time to call and inquire yourself you would know they do send off island for recycling. Comments like your above are why people just continue to kick the recyclable can down the road.
I posed the question. I do recycle everything I can. I just use the free CIG recycling depots.
I do know what Junk says. I have just never seen them actually export anything, but I have seen CIG do it.
Again, are you following them? Do your own research please because you are just adding to a narrative that is incorrect. But that’s how this place works, marl road gossip rules and facts drool.
So they can take it to the dump for you…
Again, if you want to know what they do with it just call them yourself instead of assuming what you don’t know.
What does junk really do with it??
As a single 2 person household, we recycle everything we can. We generate (on average) only ONE SINGLE 13 gallon kitchen trash bag every THREE WEEKS!
With a family member who previously lived where failure to properly recycle was met with a swift civil monetary fine for each occurrence, the habit is well established. Stick vs carrot results in far better compliance!
It is time for a mandatory recycling program, with TEETH in it to change the entrenched wasteful habits.
check where your recycle goods end up…majority ends up in some 3rd world country dump. get off your high horse.
get off your ass and try to do something instead of nothing.
A lot of this waste is due to the fact that everything is imported here. All the extra boxes, glass, packaging and plastic is what dominates my trashcans every day. We are a wealthy nation and residents here buy a lot more stuff than in other countries. IF there could be a proper recycling system here it would greatly reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill.
>80% of public landfills are comprised of construction debris and institutional waste. Cleared lots, concrete and asbestos buildings, appliances, vehicles, unsorted PVC and wire. All the volumes of hotel and hospital trash. Regular household trash amounts to a tiny fraction of input by comparison.
Plus the food containers from the grocery stores. Should brand their own re-usable containers and get rid of the disposable ones (whether they are compostable or not).
That’s not only 5 times the global average, it’s twice as high as the US, which supposedly produces the most waste per person in the entire world. World class performance indeed.
Ridiculous misrepresentation through statistics. By volume, we are not even comparable to a single major city in the US. These reports are always skewed against small countries (or OTs in this case, before the pedants begin with their pavlovian “ackshualllllyyyyy…”)
We could go 100% solar, with zero excess waste (through WTE or whatever means), and it would equate to little more than a rounding error in actuality.
Feel like you don’t know what per capita means.
tell me you don’t know what per Capita means with telling me you don’t know what per Capita means …
“In a new report released Monday, Auditor General Sue Winspear and her team focused on how Cayman is fairing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other environmental-related targets that governments have set over the last few years.”
So now we understand the sudden interest in appointing consultants to advise the government on SDG. It’s so that they can respond to the OAGs criticism by saying they are doing something! Well, I guess it beats the usual reaction of just ignoring anything the Auditor General says.
Yep- it’s called ‘getting out in front of the news’- classic PR strategy.
Jennifer will be on this.