The Tribune

A waste services provider disclosed in a 2016 paper, presented to the Chamber of Commerce, how Bahamians have been let down by the failure of successive governments to fully capitalise on previous New Providence landfill upgrades. Tribune Business publishes it today to show the road that led to this weekend’s inferno . . .

By Ginny Mckinney Wastenot

Past

Around 1992, Stantec, a Canadian engineering group, was employed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to carry out a comprehensive study of our garbage collection practices and the condition of the various landfills within the Bahamas.

Upon completing this study, they were then charged with designing a modern, fully-engineered landfill for New Providence, and some simpler landfills for the major populated islands, namely Andros, Abaco, Eleuthera and Grand Bahama. They also gave detailed guidance as to how we should conduct our future garbage management, strongly advising that the Bahamas focus on the recycling of plastics, metals, glass, cardboard and paper, plus the diversion of tyres, construction-related waste (C&D) and scrap metal from the landfill. The composting of green waste was also recommended, but Stantec’s call for waste-to-energy was not considered at the time.

The financial agreement was for the IDB to put in around $26 million, with the Government investing $9million to carry out Stantec’s infrastructure recommendations. This ultimately led to the Solid Waste Management project that began in 1999, involving a $23.5 million IDB loan and $10 million contribution from the Government.

The following infrastructure was completed: A new office complex for the Department of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) on Farrington Road and, at the New Providence landfill facility, a fully-equipped machine shop for maintenance of all the landfill’s machinery.

There was an administrative building for the accounting staff and landfill managers, plus a hazardous waste building with associated laboratory space, and a building that was to have housed fire-fighting equipment and, possibly, educational or more office spaces.

Weighbridges were installed along with a weighhouse for issuing tickets, plus a diesel pumping station. A dedicated landfill compacting machine was also purchased, while the landfill was prepared to eventually allow for six lined landfill cells (of which only one was completed). A full leachate control system was installed, including piping for Cell One, and a pumping station and a leachate pond for holding the excess leachate.

When Stantec finally left we were in possession of a fully-prepared and equipped sanitary landfill, with a comprehensive blueprint on how to use it. On the other islands, the plans were in place for their landfills, but it was quite a few years before these were put out to bid and executed.

Present

So what is left of the infrastructure and detailed blueprint that Stantec left? Cell One, the only lined cell, is now full to capacity and, in fact, looms well over its suggested top out-height. Fortunately, the ‘gabon’ system of venting was followed right up until its closure, and this is the only cell not to have caught on fire.

The leachate system for Cell One, though, is crushed and useless. Leachate gathers around the bottom of Cell One, and is added to by the overflow of sewage from the adjacent sewerage ponds when it rains. No other cells were ever lined. In the face of recurring fires, emergency management meant garbage was placed in unlined Cells never to be removed, and the Cells then lined.

All the administration, hazmat and repair buildings still exist but, over time, were never fully utilised, particularly the hazardous waste building. In the case of the machine shop, many components have disappeared. The dedicated landfill compactor stood idle most of the time, as DEHS personnel cited problems with garbage packing under the cowling around the tyres.

In the 16-plus years since the landfill infrastructure was finished, formal recycling was never implemented by the DEHS. The only recycling being done on the landfill was by the independent pickers, who would work the open face of the landfill (where the daily tipping was happening), recycling mainly metals, beer bottles and gently-used items that could be re-used. Private entities, such as like Cans for Kids, raised funds for children through aluminium can recycling. Bahamas Waste recycled cooking oil into a fuel and cardboard for export. Tyres and shipping pallets were segregated by DEHS but, around 2009 (at which point they covered over 10 acres), they were consumed by fire and this scenario has been repeated about three more times since.

Solutions

Bahamian waste companies have been presenting Integrated Waste Management Proposals for the island of New Providence (which includes the management of the landfill), separately and collectively, for more than 20 years. More comprehensive solutions have been offered over the past eight years.

From the first Request for Proposal (RFP) sent out by BEC in 2008 to the present day, the industry has responded with well thought-out, professionally advised and engineered, proposals, but we have never received an invitation from the Government to even discuss them until now.

We presented, at the request of the Minister of the Environment, another green waste collection and processing proposal for the NP landfill in 2015 (we had proposed the year before as well). I have personally been proposing green waste collection and processing for 25 years.

The previous landfill manager

When Renew Bahamas won the bid to manage the New Providence landfill, we assumed they were being held to the same criteria as the Bahamian companies. These criteria included full remediation of the existing landfill within a defined timeline, recycling, security, fencing of the whole property, fire prevention, overall landfill management, new scales, all the machinery necessary to run the landfill and taking on all the existing DEHS personnel. This was all to be done without subsidies from the Government.

We have never seen [Renew Bahamas] contract. We do know their business plan hinged on their ability to sell reclaimed material at a certain price. We know that the Government gave them $20 per tonne, which at 90 tonnes per day, seven days per week, four weeks per month, was quite a hefty subsidy. This is in addition to the Government subsidising the fire fighting activities (including purchase of fill), and the security and - possibly - the rental of the compacting equipment.

Future

There are items in the landfill that need to be diverted by being collected separately, the biggest component being green waste and food waste. .

We have approximately 200,000 car tyres discarded every year (in better economic times, even more are generated). Each tyre has already paid a disposal fee to the Government at the point of entry.

Around 2009, a Bahamian coalition of tyre vendors made a bid to the Government to process them. In 2010, we were finally given 25 cents per tyre, but had to discontinue because that fee was not sufficient to sustain our operation. We have bid twice more on the tyre recycling at the request of the Minister of the Environment. We are asking for $3 out of the $5 collected for passenger tyres, in order to process them to a shred/crumb. The crumb will be a good additive to road paving.