From The Cayman Islands Department of Environmental Health

From the beginning of June 2016, government will take over responsibility for the collection depots located at major supermarkets for the recycling of household and small business waste.

This service is currently provided by local company, Junk, through private contracts with the supermarkets, with no government involvement. Junk recently advised the supermarket management that its company will no longer provide the service and that it will close the recycling depots on 31 May for business reasons.

A request for proposals (RFP) for enhanced recycling was advertised earlier this year and there was only one bidder. The RFP covered a two-year interim period as there will be a subsequent RFP that covers the entire Integrated Solid Waste Management System (ISWMS), including recycling. The amount proposed by the bidder in its tender was considerably more than government thought reasonable at this juncture, and the bidder indicated that the price it offered was the best the company could do for a two-year contract. Consequently, the decision was made that the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) would temporarily take over the recycling programme until the new RFP is awarded. It is projected that the costs of managing the programme will be less than those that were in the tender. Government stresses that this is a temporary fix based purely on costs, and that Junk, along with any other interested parties, will have an opportunity to bid on the larger contract, which should be advertised by year-end.

Director of DEH, Roydell Carter, commented: “The DEH will immediately step in to take over management of the various depots so customers can continue to deliver their recyclable materials to bins located at Foster’s Food Fair stores by the Airport, Strand, Countryside, and Republix as well as to Kirk Market, Hurley’s supermarket, and Chisholm’s Supermarket in North Side.”

At each depot location, there will also be some changes to the programme. There will be new, separate bins in these locations for clean paper (including shredded paper, newspapers and magazines, boxboard and old corrugated cardboard), aluminum cans, and totes for glass/ceramics. Metal cans, such as food and pet food containers, can now be recycled at all of these locations. The expanded recycling programme will no longer accept all plastics as the higher number plastics are not viable; it will continue to accept #1 PET plastics (such as plastic beverage and water containers) and #2 HDPE plastics (such as milk jugs and detergent containers) in separate bins as part of the programme. These plastics can easily be identified by the above numbers that are stamped onto the bottom of the plastic containers.

“Taking household and small business waste to be recycled helps divert waste out of the landfill,” said Jim Schubert, Senior Project Manager for ISWMS. “It helps us all to play our part in the management of an ever-increasing amount of waste materials on the island.”

The government’s recycling project will be spearheaded by the DEH’s Assistant Director of Solid Waste, Mark Rowlands, who asks that everyone please respect the depots by removing plastic bags, ensuring the recyclables are clean, and avoiding contaminating the bins with garbage or containers not currently being recycled. “If everyone does their part, the costs for running the system will be minimised with a more efficient system,” he said.

DEH will also be developing further educational and promotional programmes to help customers understand the new system and to encourage the public to engage in recycling.

For more information, please contact the DEH’s office at 949-6696 or 949-8796 or [email protected].

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