The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor THE Government is still targeting a waste-to-energy plant that could produce 7-10 per cent of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation's (BEC) installed capacity as the 'end game' solution for the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway landfill. Earl Deveaux, minister of the environment, told Tribune Business that while no decisions would be taken before the general election, the way to a successful solution for New Providence's waste management was "infinitely clearer and more transparent" than half-a-year ago. Outlining a four-step solution that he said would be relatively easy for an incoming government to "pick up" and bring to a conclusion, Mr Deveaux said the Ingraham administration had made strong progress on the first two - waste collection and management. The third step, he told Tribune Business, was to implement a material recovery system at the landfill that could separate out the various waste streams. This would then unlock the door to a 20-30 Megawatt (MW) waste-to-energy plant and the waste streams that could be converted into electricity. Confirming that the current government had sought a 'holistic' solution for the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway landfill's issues, Mr Deveaux said this "has to happen" to prevent the site becoming clogged with an ever-growing waste mountain, and all the social and health issues that entailed. "It's something any government can pick up and run quickly with," the minister told Tribune Business, pointing out that once conditions were ripe, and a private bidder selected, a waste-to-energy plant could be constructed at Tonique Williams-Darling Highway in 12-15 months. "The steps, and sequence of steps, are infinitely clearer and more transparent today than they were six months ago," Mr Deveaux said. "The best estimates of what the current waste streams could produce is a low of 20MW and a high of 30MW. That's 7-10 per cent of BEC's installed capacity from a renewable source. "It's actually quite a significant factor, not only in terms of electricity supply, as it should stabilise the price, but what it does in improving the health of the surrounding environment and savings in foreign exchange." While any waste-to-energy plant would be financed by the chosen private bidder under a build/own/operate arrangement, Mr Deveaux said: "All the options we have considered have shown significant high-paying employment opportunities, both in terms of construction and running the operations. "The facility will pay for itself from the sale of the electricity it generates. The price of electricity will be based and benchmarked on the price of BEC's most efficient production levels. It's how we structure it so that the sale of electricity will be comparable with the price structure we have." Acknowledging that a fully functioning waste-to-energy plant would make landfill management easier, Mr Deveaux indicated that such a solution could not be achieved unless all four stages - waste collection, landfill management, waste stream separation/sorting, and energy plant - were operating in harmony. "If we have haphazard collection and haphazard management of the landfill, we will not achieve the desired end of 20-30 MW of electricity," he added. The next step in the process is to implement a "material recovery system" at the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway landfill. Currently, waste collected throughout New Providence is not separated, and contains materials that could either be recycled, used for renewable energy generation or need to be take out altogether. While steel and concrete could be used in perpetuity, Mr Deveaux said glass could be sold, while old batteries and cell phones had re-sale value. Green waste could be mulched, while plastics had to be disposed of in a way that ensured they did not live in the ground for 400 years. "The idea was to have things in place to manage the waste stream. We have all these options if we have a materials recovery solution," the minister told Tribune Business. "It has to happen, otherwise we will have a growing mountain of waste and the environmental consequences. We've made some significant steps. The downside to this is negative for the country, and the upside is positive for the country." Mr Deveaux said the Government had wanted make sure the four steps - waste management, collection, materials recovery and waste-to-energy - were "aligned". The first two had "improved", he added, appearing to indicate that progress had been impeded by the competing interests of the various parties concerned at the landfill. The Government has entertained landfill management and waste-to-energy proposals from various groups, with both Bahamian and foreign participants, but "could not conclude those discussions in a way that was productive". As a result, the Ingraham administration has kept its options - and the door - open to any bidder or group with a solution worthy of consideration. Four Bahamian companies, United Sanitation, Waste Not, Impac and BISX-listed Bahamas Waste have teamed up to create a consortium seeking to take over the landfill management, but they are unlikely to receive an answer until after the upcoming general election. "We continue to work on it. We're not going to do anything on it before the election," Mr Deveaux said. "We have an open dialogue with the local community and their partners, and have outsourced some of the collections to three of them." Dean's Sanitation, Bahamas Waste and Waste Not have been collecting residential garbage for the Government since the summer.