Experts: Use Landfills to Produce Biofuels, Encourage Recycling

BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production, Business News/Analysis, Feedstocks, Funding/Financing/Investing, Not Agriculture, Sustainability, Trinidad and Tobago

May 5, 2022

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by Tyrell Gittens (Trinidad and Tobago Newsday) Every day, three landfills in Trinidad receive over 1,000 tonnes of garbage, with the one in Beetham, Port of Spain taking in the largest volume (500 tonnes), followed by those in Guanapo, Arima and Forres Park, Claxton Bay, which each receive approximately 300 tonnes of refuse.

While there have always been concerns about the safety and sustainability of these landfills, fresh concerns were raised when fires at the Beetham dump generated toxic smoke which blanketed Port of Spain and its environs for several days in early April.

Even as the Solid Waste Management Co Ltd (SWMCOL) plans to build a central, engineered landfill in Forres Park by 2026, and close the two others, experts warn the new site will only relocate the problems if people don’t adopt better waste-management practices.

Business Day spoke with experts in waste management, biology, and health about the issues plaguing the existing landfills and why better waste management is the only feasible solution.

SWMCOL CEO Kevin Thompson said all three landfills have surpassed their capacities, given the volume of waste they collect daily.

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But waste specialist and UWI lecturer Dr Trina Halfhide doesn’t fully support closing the landfills, and considers their closure a Band-Aid which doesn’t solve the country’s overall waste-management problem.

“We can use our waste for other purposes. For example, we can use organic materials from food waste to produce biofuel.

“So there needs to be an all-inclusive plan about what to do with the landfill and recognise we can create value-added products from the landfill.” READ MORE

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