EBANKS-WILKS UNVEILS A NEW WASTE AND LANDFILL STRATEGY

By Staff Writer

The Hon. Minister for Environment and Sustainability, Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, has announced a new strategy to tackle Cayman’s mounting waste disposal challenges.

Ever since the high-profile proposed Regen waste-to-energy project with the DART corporation was terminated in 2024, there has been much debate over the future of the George Town landfill and waste disposal broadly.

As a member of the previous United People’s Movement(UPM) government, Min. Ebanks-Wilks oversaw the termination of the DART contract. She told last week’s sitting of the Parliamentary Finance Committee that the National Coalition For Caymanians(NCFC) administration now has a new 10-year strategy to resolve the issue.

“We have a proposed 10-year plan from 2025 to 2035 to start. Our goal during the next five years is to reduce the amount of waste heading to the landfill, buying us time to deliver on the proposed national Solid Waste Plan and build a new solid waste facility.”

As outlined by Min. Ebanks-Wilks, the objective is to build new processing facilities and safely manage the major categories of waste, categorised as green waste, recyclable waste, material and household waste.

She said one such project is to replace the 20-years-old medical waste incinerator at the Department of Environmental Health, which no longer meets modern environmental or operational standards.

Other elements include placing greater emphasis on recycling, a new compactor for the Cayman Brac landfill, and the development of a new National Solid Waste Plan.

“Our plan is incremental and starts with developing both a recycling policy and a business case for each of those mentioned facilities. At the same time, we will begin the required three-stage business case for the new solid waste facility, and once completed, we can then begin waste management works, rolling out recycling, and diverting from the landfill is a part of the overall strategy.”

She said Cayman’s waste disposal challenge has been worsening for decades. “The 124,125 tons of waste sent to the landfill last year exceeded previous projections made 10 years ago, which estimated a worst-case scenario of 80,000 tons per year. We know this has to do with the population growth, but it is where we are at,” she informed the Committee and the nation.

Contrasting Cayman’s waste management methods with those of other regional countries, Mrs Ebanks-Wilks referred to Barbados and Bermuda.

“Barbados diverts up to 70% of its solid waste away from the landfill through various facilities for processing metals, construction, yard waste and recycling. And Bermuda diverts almost all of its municipal waste through their waste-to-energy facility.”

“We can, and we must do better,” the Environment and Sustainability minister insisted.

Driving home the seriousness of what is confronting Cayman, Min. Ebanks-Wilks warned of the dire consequences if action is not taken now.

“We now know, based on the latest models from the Department of Environmental Health, that if we don’t implement an interim plan, we have approximately five to seven years before reaching capacity at the Georgetown landfill with limited contingencies for emergencies.”

However, on an encouraging note, she added that after reviewing what’s already in place, including existing project contracts and land agreements, “we are now able to act and we do not have to start from scratch.”

She also stated that “we have the benefit of beginning these works as early as next year, due to the phased approach.”

“The timeline yes will be tight, but passing the proposed recycling policy and strategy, which will be developed early next year, and then starting the RFP and construction of these three priority facilities will win us time and capacity with this new waste management plan, implementing facilities to increase recycling, I believe we can decrease the volume of waste going to the landfill and extend the landfills lifespan.”