Government is buying a $30 million “state-of-the-art” incinerator to both improve waste management and meet the energy needs of the Port of Bridgetown, its chief executive has told lawmakers.
Barbados Port Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Jean-Marie made the revelation in Parliament while responding to queries from Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde about occasional thick plumes of black smoke emanating from the port some days.
Jean-Marie explained that the waste generated by the port and the cruise and cargo ships is not allowed to leave the port and so has to be treated on site.
The current incinerator is below the needed capacity, is over 25 years old “and is very much at the end of its life and is not capable of burning all the garbage generated at the port”.
Jean-Marie was at pains to admit that some of the garbage generated was treated through open air burning.
He said: “The Port internally generates about 1,500 cubic metres of garbage [per month] and during the cruise season, which is six months of the year from November until May, generates a further 2,000 or so cubic metres of garbage [per month].
“So our incinerator is not capable of dealing with it. And unfortunately, it is not something we are proud of, but we have to sometimes burn via open earth because we have to dispose of the garbage and get rid of it, otherwise we will have a problem with rodents and so on.
“We are not proud of the fact that we burn garbage. We try to minimize that and it only happen during the season.
“We do generate quite a bit of the pallets that come out of the containers, [and there is] the ships garbage and remember that we are a homeport and we do want to provide those facilities for the ships.”
Jean-Marie said the Port had engaged IDB Invest to carry out a study to determine a more efficient way of getting rid of waste at that port of entry.
The port chief announced: “We were looking at gasification versus paralysis versus incineration and the study came back and indicated that we should continue with incineration.
“And [IDB invest] are going to provide us with the specs and the help in the procurement of a new incinerator that will handle about 4,500 cubic metres of garbage per month.”
He said they were in the process of acquiring the bigger and better incinerator, which will cost $30 million (US$15 million).
He told lawmakers: “We will hopefully, within this financial year coming, we will have that incinerator and eliminate this burning that you see happening periodically.
“When we do burn we involved the fire service and all of the various agencies so we are satisfied that it is relatively safe but it is not something we are proud of.
“The incinerator we are looking at will have a waste-to-energy component and with the volume of garbage we expect to generate enough energy that would take care of about 20 per cent of the energy bill of the Port.”
Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey described the situation as “almost shameful”, adding that he was disappointed that among a number of deals made by the previous Democratic Labour Party administration, getting a new incinerator was not a priority.
Humphrey said: “It is a little frustrating to see the deals made in the contracts and money spent on other things and something as important as an incinerator was left undone.
“It is a priority of this Government and that is why we are not only looking to replace the incinerator but we are looking at getting the most technologically advanced incinerator that once we start to deal with the garbage we do not generate pollutants or damage the environment.”
He declared that the incinerator will be in line with the Port’s vision of becoming the most innovative and green port in the hemisphere.
