The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) says it will undertake a $7.5-million recycling pilot project in three communities, beginning in August.

The ‘Waste Reduction through Waste Separation, Waste Diversion and Recycling Project’ aims to reduce the high volume of plastic bottles at the Riverton disposal site.

It will involve partnership with various stakeholders in the recycling of plastic containers, the NSWMA said.

According to the waste management agency, approximately 2,000 households — with some 10,000 people from Rollington Town in Kingston and Caribbean Estates and Caymanas Country Club in St Catherine — will participate in the six-month pilot.

The Japanese Government, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has provided $6.5 million for the undertaking, with the Government of Jamaica, through the NSWMA, contributing the remainder of the funds.

It is anticipated that the equivalent of 347 tonnes of solid waste or 3.8 million plastic bottles will be collected during the implementation.

At the launch held on Friday at The Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, Denzil Thorpe, noted the importance of the project in protecting the environment.

Thorpe, who represented portfolio minister, Desmond McKenzie, pointed out that 1.2 million tonnes of solid waste are generated in Jamaica annually, 75 per cent of which ends up at the country’s disposal sites.

He said that a “miniscule” portion of the remaining 25 per cent is recycled by small entities “but the rest end up in the general environment in places such as open lots, abandoned buildings, drains and gullies, rivers, mangroves and beaches”.

“We are embarking on an aspect of environmental management that is commonplace in many developed countries and which will be a critical indicator of Jamaica’s own path to developed-country status by the year 2030,” he pointed out.

Chairman of the NSWMA, Dennis Chung said the objective is for the project to become a sustainable undertaking, and thanked the Government and people of Japan for the support.

Japan’s Ambassador to Jamaica Masanori Nakano, said his country welcomed the opportunity to assist with the project’s implementation.

He also gave the Japanese Government’s undertaking to continue working with local stakeholders “to tackle the issue of solid waste reduction”.

The NSWMA’s Senior Planning and Research Officer Garfield Murray, who gave a project overview, said the agency anticipates that the initiative will be extended to 34 additional communities over the medium-term and a greater number in the long run.

Other speakers included JICA resident representative in Jamaica, Kenji Tobita; representative of the Okinawa Citizens’ Recycling Movement in Japan, Hiroshi Kagachi; and NSWMA national fleet manager, Lenroy James.

— JIS