Environmental group urges action on EV battery, tyre disposal

The Future Centre Trust declared on Friday it was upping the ante as an environmental pressure group this year as it seeks to ensure the government addresses some burning issues affecting the environmental sustainability of the island.

Chairman of the non-governmental organisation Kammie Holder told Barbados TODAY that he was not satisfied with the way in which some sustainability initiatives were being implemented, especially as it relates to transport.

He said his organisation wanted to meet with the relevant authorities as soon as possible to thrash out such concerns.

In a bid to transition to 100 per cent reliance on renewable energy by 2030, the government introduced a tax holiday for the purchase of electric vehicles (EV) and reduced the import duties for new and used electric vehicles to 10 per cent in 2022. The import duty on hybrid vehicles was also lowered.

Holder said the disposal of EV batteries which contain lithium is of deep concern.

“How do we dispose of EV batteries? I have not heard any clear suggestions as to how we are going to deal with these EV batteries. What is the policy? We cannot put the cart before the donkey, and what I’m saying is that we need to also have a plan in place to deal with these EV batteries.
Are we gonna export them? Once China was seen as a dumping ground for a lot of our waste but China no longer takes all this waste,” he said, noting that these batteries could be hazardous to humans and damaging to the environment.
Holder said another bone of contention in transport was the disposal of tyres.

He said: “Why is it then if it is so low tech, why can’t we deal with the same car tyres that we have as a problem in this country? Why can’t we find a solution such as even tyre crumbs in the building of more roads? There are many lowtech solutions that can be done.”

Holder called for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Environment Minister Adrian Forde to discuss these issues: “There must be engagement with NGOs like the Future Centre Trust who have access to many technocrats around the world due to our associations and the government needs to engage more with NGOs at the Future Centre Trust in finding workable solutions for some of the environmental challenges that we have in this country.

“I’m hoping that the prime minister, as well as the minister of environment, will engage with us so we can have discussions on many of the outstanding issues as it relates to the disposal of the tyres and the idea of how we treat the EV batteries that we may be overrun within this country. I prefer to have dialogue; it’s not about confrontation.”

In light of the strides PM Mottley was making on the international scene on the issue of climate change, Holder said it was also important that attention be given to some of the localised problems affecting the environment.

“What we want to do in the foreseeable future is to ramp up our advocacy because we are thinking that we cannot only speak globally, we must act locally as it relates to the issues and concerns if we are really to speak to environmental justice for Barbados,” he added.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb