New recycling equipment has arrived on Grand Cayman and is being installed to process materials from around the island.

The equipment complements existing machinery, allowing for more efficient collection, storage, processing, compacting and shipping of recyclables collected from supermarket depots.

This arrangement has been put in place by the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) as an interim measure to divert recyclable materials from going into the landfill until the new Integrated Solid Waste Management System (ISWMS) is implemented.

“We are extremely pleased to have this equipment on-island,” said Premier and Minister for Health Hon. Alden McLaughlin. “Recycling is an integral part of the new system dealing with waste in a sustainable manner for years to come.”

The move also demonstrates the government’s commitment to the ISWMS project which will ultimately reduce quantities landfilled by more than 90 per cent.

Costing a little more than $90,000 the new recycling equipment includes a sorting table, baler conveyor and a horizontal conveyor, which will be operated by five to six people.

There are also new recycling containers, valued at around $50,000, which will replace the existing temporary bins at the recycling depots at Foster’s Food Fair in West Bay, the Strand, the Airport Centre and Savannah, as well as Hurley’s supermarket and Kirk Market.

In addition to containers for collecting aluminum/tin, plastics and paper/cardboard, ceramic dishes will be now accepted along with glass, for recycling. The glass and ceramics will be crushed for aggregate by Dart, while the waste paper/cardboard will be collected in a new line of specialised plastic bins to ensure paper/cardboard is flattened and kept dry for processing.

New signage, with instructions, will be added to the recycling depots, each of which will be named for the district in which it is located, to instill a sense of community ownership and pride.

“It is this sense of ownership that DEH hopes will encourage community users to help make this recycling effort a great success,” said Mark Rowlands, Assistant Director of Solid Waste, Department of Environmental Health.

After being taken to the recycling building at the landfill, recyclables will be sorted into material types, baled into compressed cubes and shipped by container to recycling markets in the United States or elsewhere. The sale of the materials will be handled by a broker, with the Cayman Islands Government receiving the market rate for the materials.

“If residents properly clean and put the correct materials in each bin as identified on the signage, and our staff properly sorts the materials and removes any contamination, then we will get top dollar for what we send,” said Mr. Rowlands,

The proposed ISWMS project is currently in the first stage of the procurement phase with government aiming to have a contract in place, in principle, by spring 2017.

(GIS) Photo captions: (Photos: Catherine MacGillivray, GIS)

Photo 32: DEH staff members celebrate the commissioning of the new recyclable processing equipment. L-r: John McField, recycling processor; Gilbert Bush, driver’s assistant; Deborah Ramoon, recycling processor; Edgar Quesada, mechanic.

Photo 37: L-r Mark Rowlands, assistant director, Solid Waste Management, with Angelo Roye, recycling foreman and Bruce Clarke from International Baler, the company which provided the new equipment. Mr Clarke trained staff on how to work the controls of the horizontal baler and conveyor system.

Photo 55: Mark Rowlands with a bale of compressed recyclable materials.