Antigua & Barbuda recycles cans

Vernon Khelawan
Published: 30 Jul 2009

A small waste recycling plant in Antigua & Barbuda created history there two weeks ago when it shipped out its first load of discarded cans bound for a Canadian plant. The Antigua & Barbuda Waste Recycling Corporation (ABWREC) collected on the island more than 550,000 aluminium cans and converted them into 22,000 pounds of recyclable materials which filled a 40-foot container. “We are very excited about it,” said manager Carol Faye George. George said everything possible is being done to encourage the public to recycle more “so we can get another shipment out before the end of the year.” ABWREC is a non-profit project of the Rotary Antigua Sundown Club, which was started three years ago in collaboration with Fortune Metals Inc of Canada, with which it maintains a healthy relationship.

The project, launched in 2005, is the first such facility in Antigua and Barbuda, and has grown to the point where expansion has become necessary. George is proud of this recycling initiative. “It has always been my aim to expand the operations here and this can only be seen as a step in the right direction. There are plans to move into recycling paper and other materials.” The company already accepts type one and type two plastic bottles, aluminium cans and lead acid batteries. It is also handling waste from cuttings of PVC pipes as well as from galvanised iron sheets, plastic crates and lithium batteries. Two 40-foot containers of waste have already been shipped to Hong Kong. The company is co-funded by the United Kingdom High Commission and is part of the agreement under which the Global Environment Fund provided money to the club to establish the facility. George, a staunch environmentalist, last month organised a two-day regional workshop, which was attended by delegates from St Lucia, St Kitts/Nevis, Dominica, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines. “We need to sensitise the people and get them on board with this, because its is about what we can do to save our environment and natural resources.” One facilitator, Medhi Bukhari of Fortune Metals, a company with gross annual sales of US$500 million, while the other, Kemmie Holder was from B’s Recycling in Barbados. One aim of the workshop was to do a serious analysis of the current global recycling market and additional ways and means of getting funding. It also highlighted the need to implement a “cash for trash” incentive programme to encourage the public to recycle. Giles Romulus, the sub-regional co-ordinator of Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, challenged the Club as well as the Antiguan government to move recycling facility forward to manufacturing and selling plastic products for use in the construction and furniture industries. Romulus said such a move could enhance employment opportunities in Antigua and Barbuda and the wider Caricom market. Barbadian environmentalist Paul Bynoe told participants, “When you start offering money for recyclables, you get people knocking on the door. You will not find bottles on the street anymore.” Barbados has a law which mandates payment for bottles—Bds$0.10 for plastic bottles and Bds$0.20 for glass bottles. http://guardian.co.tt/business/business-guardian/2009/07/30/antigua-barbuda-recycles-cans