Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Caribbean Development Trends

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agribusiness
    • Antigua and Barbuda
    • Barbados
    • BehaviorChange
    • Belize
    • Bermuda
    • biodiversity
    • Blockchain
    • Caribbean
    • Caribbean Culture and Media
    • Climate Change
    • Creative Economy
    • Crime Prevention and Citizen Security
    • Data and Knowledge
    • De-risking
    • Dominica
    • Dutch
    • Early Childhood Development
    • Economic Growth
    • Education Policy
    • energy
    • entrepreneurship
    • Environmental and Climate Change
    • Events
    • Extractives
    • Finance
    • Fiscal Rules
    • gender
    • Governance and Regulatory Policy Reforms
    • Grenada
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Health
    • Health Policy
    • Hurricane
    • Hurricane Irma
    • infrastructure
    • Innovation and change
    • Intellectual Property
    • IWD
    • Jamaica
    • JumpCaribbean
    • Labor
    • Labour Markets
    • MOOC
    • Music
    • Natural Disasters
    • Nurturing Institutions
    • OECS
    • Podcast
    • Poverty
    • Private Sector and Entrepreneurship
    • Saint Kitts and Nevis
    • Saint Lucia
    • Saint Vincent and Grenadines
    • skills
    • Sports for Development
    • Suriname
    • Technology
    • The Bahamas
    • The Blue Economy
    • Transportation
    • Tourism
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Uncategorized
    • VAWG
    • Webinar
    • women
    • Women for Change
    • youth
  • Country Offices
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Suriname
  • Press Releases
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Suriname
  • Authors

Proper Solid Waste Management Involves all of us

January 11, 2016 by Syreta Roberts 2 Comments


Photo by Rosemary Clarice Hanna

The Bahamas markets itself as a Tourist destination: An archipelago of 700 islands and Cays with white sand beaches, aqua transparent water and a green and pristine environment. For the most part this is the case. However, garbage can easily be found on road sides, derelict vehicles in some yards, and in the nearby bushes of some areas in New Providence and the Bahamian Family Islands. Plastic containers, Styrofoam plates and cups left on beaches, are a common discovery. What is worst is that all of these items and more can be found in the sea.

 


Photos by Rosemary Clarice Hanna

Moreover, the spontaneous fires at the Harold Road landfill over the last five years made management of solid waste on the island of New Providence impossible. This was unacceptable for me personally because the pre-school that my daughter attended would from time to time become engulfed by the thick black smoke and fumes from these fires. At best, these fires would surround the school for a few hours and at worst for two weeks. Despite the schools efforts to keep the children in doors or request that they be collected and stay home until the fires were contained, by the time my daughter was 3 years old she had developed asthma.

In May 2014, the Government run Harold Road Landfill came under new management and fortunately, for all of us residing in New Providence, the frequency and intensity of the landfill fires have been reduced tremendously. Renew Bahamas, the company managing the Landfill, aims to reduce the amount of solid waste that ends up in the landfill by recycling plastics, cans, cardboards, metals, paper, and glass that comes in as garbage.

 

Harold road landfill fire

Additionally, Renew Bahamas aims to remediate and reconstruct the landfill, transforming it into a sanitary state, which will reduce and eventually eradicate the spontaneous fires.

This enormous initiative to recycle waste and reform the landfill will require the involvement of all persons residing in The Bahamas in order for it to be sustainable. The process of recycling starts in homes, schools, business places, and similar entities. We have to sort our garbage according to the types of waste items – plastics, cans, bottles, paper & cardboard, metals. There should be specific containers outside of homes and buildings in which to put each type of waste. Specifically labeled garbage containers for each type of commonly used items should be put in public areas. Further, the waste should be collected in this separated manner in order for recycling to be sustainable.


Photo by Syreta Roberts

Organic waste such as food should be disposed of separately and collected from schools, hotels, and restaurants to be prepared for composting in order for it to be used by local farms, nurseries, stables, and national agricultural and environmental projects at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Sciences Institute (BAMSI).


Photos by Syreta Roberts

The development of a culture for proper solid waste management must involve all people residing in The Bahamas. A national communication plan on ways to involve and at the same time educate residents on improving the management of municipal solid waste by sorting garbage in the homes, cleaning up of beaches, paying fees to properly dispose of waste that can pollute the environment and the air would go a long way in gaining Bahamian buy-in on moving away from dumping locations to sanitary landfills. We will understand that garbage left uncollected for weeks will spread diseases, contaminate water, including mangroves, which play an important role in increasing our fisheries. We will understand that our involvement in proper municipal solid waste management is linked to reducing greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming.

The rewards of such involvement would mean a healthier land and sea environment overall, less breeding grounds for vector-borne diseases, which will all strengthen our Tourism industry. Finally, finding ways to re-use, recycle, and properly reduce solid waste, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases would make The Bahamas eligible for Carbon finance benefits.


Photo by Deran Thompson


Photo by Rosemary Clarice Hanna

 

 

 

Follow us on Twitter: @IDB_CarDevTrend


Filed Under: Climate Change & Environment, The Bahamas Tagged With: Bahamas, Carbon Finance., Garbage Collection, Garbage sorting, greenhouse gases, Harold Road Landfill, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management, recycle, recycling, Renew Bahamas, solid waste management, solid wastes

Syreta Roberts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Maria Florencia Attademo-Hirt says

    January 12, 2016 at 10:00 pm

    Great blog Syreta! Thanks and congratulations, Florencia

    Reply
  2. Diana Jenkins says

    January 14, 2016 at 5:15 am

    This is horrible! I can’t believe that tourists are turning this paradise into a dumpster! Pollution is really everywhere and the waste management politic is not working really good. It is really horrible that the landfill is so close to the school and the burning fire cause a cloud of poisonous gas that the kids inhale! Really sad!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Caribbean Dev Trends

We provide unique and timely insights on the Caribbean and its political, social, and economic development. At the IDB, we strive to improve lives in the Caribbean by creating vibrant and resilient economies where people are safe, productive and happy.

Similar posts

  • Solid Waste Management in The Bahamas Has Some History
  • Reducing, Reusing, Recycling and Recovering Waste the Bajan Way
  • Run Out of Waste Day in Suriname
  • Local enterprise and Government keeping Barbados clean
  • Recycling for a better life

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

Blog posts written by Bank employees:

Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


For blogs written by external parties:

For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

Aviso Legal

Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

facebook
twitter
youtube
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT