There’s money in composting, says NSWMA boss
LUCEA, Hanover — Executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), Audley Gordon, has assured residents of Chambers Pen in Hanover that the State agency will support their efforts to make a living from turning garbage into fertiliser. The community was selected to pilot a compost project last year and the results have been promising.
“I would be derelict in my duties if I didn’t tell you that what actually came to Chambers Pen when we came with this composting pilot was real opportunity to make money,” Gordon said on April 23 during a ceremony to mark the end of the pilot project.
With fertiliser prices “through the roof” because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, he pointed out, there is a real opportunity for community members as long as they continue the project.
“Composting is very good soil nutrients and it has a good commercial benefit, you can do it and we will be with you, that’s the important thing,” Gordon assured those gathered.
“This partnership is not a little thing like nowadays relationship where it hot today and it cold tomorrow. We will be with you and we will show you the markets; that’s part of our duty. We must help you to identify the market where you can carry the composting and you can sell it, where you can load it up on truck and send out truckload of compost and make real money,” the NSWMA boss added.
Launched last November, the project seeks to reduce the amount of solid waste that goes into the country’s landfills. Chambers Pen residents, mainly farmers, competed for prizes. In addition to showcasing their composting skills, there was also a plastic separation component to the contest.
NSWMA operations director Aretha McFarlane said the goal is to expand the project to more communities across the country.
“To date it is showing positive signs, thanks to you the participants, and as such we aim to have a full implementation of the composting and the plastic separation project. So far you have produced over 200 pounds of mature compost and over 5,000 pounds of plastic,” she said during the recent ceremony.
“This is something that we will now replicate in other communities, especially the farming communities, because we don’t need to be sending trucks into the farming communities to pull out organic waste which is a high percentage of waste that comes to the landfill. We can reuse that waste in a positive way just like you see here with the compost,” McFarlane said.
Farmer Howard Burnett, who won the composting portion of the competition, is convinced it is something worth pursuing long term.
“I stir my own very often and the more often you stir it is the more it break down. I use dry bush, green bush, a little soil and all the waste from the kitchen like the peeling skin, banana skin, breadfruit skin and I stir it very often with little cow dung and rat bat dung,” he explained.
Burnett walked away with a weekend for two at Grand Palladium, 50 chickens, 10 bags of feed, garden tools, a 400-gallon water tank and a deep freezer. Several other participants also received gifts.