fp Turks and Caicos

Every day tons of waste are being created in Providenciales and its not going anywhere, at least not yet.

Beginning in June, a new option will be available to TCI Waste Disposal customers to recycle a portion of their trash.

Long talked about in the country, recycling is finally becoming a reality thanks to TCI Waste Disposal located on Providenciales. Since 2005, the company has been picking up waste from individual residences and resorts across the island. However, until now, the only option available was to take the garbage to the dump, where it is compacted into a landfill.

In February, the company broke ground on a recycling facility where a portion of the waste can be sorted and recycled on island or sent on to other nearby countries for proper reproduction into other products. Starting in July, customers will be able to recycle cans, bottles and cardboard.

“We are taking small steps but hoping to grow as we perfect the process,” says Director Samer Hakouva. TCI Waste Disposal will soon be providing their customers with the opportunity to separate cans, bottles and cardboard from their general trash to be recycled by the company.

“We will be providing separate bins to our customers for the recyclable items, which we will sort at our facility,” Director Ramez Hakouva explained.

The new facility in Blue Hills will separate the items for further processing. Cans and cardboard will be compacted and put into containers to be shipped to recycling plants where they can be processed and reused. Glass items will be crushed in the plant and recycled into aggregate, which can be used to build roads and fill pot holes.

Whole glass bottles can take up a great deal of space in the landfill, which is not getting any smaller. “Glass is not biodegradable, so it is very important that we recycle it,” commented Hakouva.

The company plans to expand the items as they are able to refine the process, but they are looking forward to finally getting going after a long planning process.

It took them more than two years to secure the location, receive planning permission and be sure they had the support of the community and government. Both the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources and the Department of Environmental Health gave the group their support, as well as the Blue Hills residents in the neighbourhood of the facility.

“We went door to door and explained what we wanted to do and had the residents sign a statement giving their support,” Hakouva said. The next step is to get the wider community involved.

“We really would like to get the schools involved,” Hakouva says, “helping to educate them about the importance of recycling. We are building something that can benefit the country as a whole.”

In addition to the environmental benefits to the country, the opportunity also allows resorts, which will now have the option to recycle a portion of their waste, one of the requirements to be Green Globe certified. This certification is becoming increasingly more important to consumers who want to travel to destinations where they can be assured the hotel is caring for its natural environment.