SMWCOL: TT not biggest polluter

Claims by international magazine Forbes that TT generates 14 kgs of waste per person per day is erroneous says the TT Solid Waste Management Company Limited (SWMCOL).

On Friday, in the article titled Caribbean Islands Are the Biggest Plastic Polluters Per Capita In The World, the Forbes website published, “The biggest culprit is TT, which produces a whopping 3.6 kilograms of plastic waste per capita per day— the largest in the world— and almost six times more than Kuwait, which is in distant second place. At least five per cent per capita per day (or 0.19 kg per person per day) of this plastic debris is almost guaranteed to end up in the ocean due to improper disposal, amounting to more marine plastic originating in TT (per capita) than 98 per cent of the countries in the world.”

In a release, SWMCOL stated that, to make its calculations, the article used a 2016 World Bank publication, What a Waste, 2012, in which a typographical error changed the correct waste generation figure per capita from 1.4 kgs to 14.

“SWMCOL takes this opportunity to remind the media that The World Bank acknowledged that the data published (What a Waste, 2012) was inaccurate due to a typographical error (typing 14.4 instead of 1.4) and corrected the data. An apology was also printed in the Trinidad Guardian on 3 April, 2016.”

It added that a recent publication by the World Bank indicated that TT produced 1.47 kgs of waste per capita. “While this figure is lower that the one previously reported, SWMCOL maintains that much more can be done in the sphere of Waste Management and Recycling.” Since the error, Forbes has adjusted the article which now reads, “The biggest culprit is TT, which produces a whopping 1.5 kilograms of waste per capita per day— the largest in the world. At least 0.19 kg per person per day of TT’s plastic debris is almost guaranteed to end up in the ocean due to improper disposal, amounting to more marine plastic originating in TT (per capita) than 98 per cent of the countries in the world.”

In addition, SWMCOL said it has implemented four recycling programmes including the Community Youth Outreach Programme, the Public Sector Recycling Programme, the Workplace Waste Reduction and Recycling Programme, and the Curbside Recycling Programme in San Fernando, Point Fortin, Sangre Grande, Arima, Couva, Tunapuna, Piarco and Port of Spain.