EMA: 370,000 bags of waste recycled

Over two years, some 370,000 jumbo garbage bags of waste were collected for recycling. Dr Nadra Nathai-Gyan, chairman of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), revealed yesterday. She was addressing the EMA’s launch of Phase II of its solid waste recycling initiative, the iCARE Project, at the Central Bank, Port of Spain.

Saying the Government is turning a new page in how the country treats the environment, she said the challenge of how to handle waste can no longer be put off for someone else to deal with. “Estimates on our waste situation suggest that not only are our landfills nearing capacity, but that as much as 80 per cent of the materials entering them have the potential to be recycled.

“In Phase I of the iCARE project, over the period 2015 to 2017, this astounding estimate became abundantly obvious, with some 370,000-plus jumbo garbage bags of plastic bottles, tetrapaks and aluminium cans being collected at the 80 collection sites located throughout Trinidad.”

Likewise, she said the EMA’s waste challenge in 2015 over two weekends of roadside collections had netted 6,000 jumbo bags of recyclables.

Nathai-Gyan said the EMA will synergise all efforts at recycling in the iCARE programme.

“As Phase II rolls out, our sister island Tobago will play its role in ensuring that the transition to a recycling culture takes place across the entire twin-island state.”