UWI biosecurity centre proposes national waste-energy revamp

The Centre for Biosecurity Studies (CBS) at the University of the West Indies (UWI) is recommending that the Mia Mottley administration adopt a policy action plan to revamp Barbados’ management of waste, energy, and environmental legislation.

The CBS policy brief shared with Barbados TODAY outlines a three-pronged strategy focused on integrated waste management, legislative changes to existing environmental and planning laws, and economic policies to drive uptake of green bioenergy, particularly in the face of mounting climate and tourism-related vulnerabilities.

The proposed integrated waste management framework would incorporate biosecurity and climate change education, fire services, air pollution mitigation, and greenhouse gas emissions controls.

It would also be supported by urban planning, emergency management, water management, roadworks, and environmental services.

On the legislative front, the CBS recommends updates to laws governing solid waste, energy, agricultural zoning, water and wastewater management, and air pollution and emissions.

To accelerate the shift to green bioenergy, the centre advocates for economic policies that offer more favourable rates than photovoltaic (PV) systems. The brief also calls for green credits or cash rebates to incentivise land management, carbon capture, biowaste conversion, and water reclamation.

“This advances the progression of the National Energy Policy goals of being carbon neutral by 2030,” it stated.

The researchers argue that small island developing states (SIDS) like Barbados face compounded risks from climate change, tourism and trade.

“As climate change impact risks increase and the vulnerabilities of trade and tourism all threaten to impair sustainable economic growth in the Caribbean, new ways of thinking and a shift in trade and tourism economic policies are required,” the CBS noted.

Tourism, the research centre warned, is a major contributor to waste: “Tourism generates copious amounts of waste globally, with some estimates indicating tourists generate twice as much waste as residents. The climate (green energy) sustainable tourism nexus is intriguing, offering new and exciting opportunities.”

As a remedy, the CBS proposes converting multiple biomass waste streams, referred to as “biotrash”, into biomethane using anaerobic co-digestion on a national scale with the goal of 15 million cubic metres of renewable fuel per year.

The plan also promotes a sharing economy, circularity, and technology-driven reuse of organic digestate and rectified wastewater. It includes a proposal for innovative carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide utilisation strategies across industries to generate new revenue streams.

The policy brief explained: “As tourism and trade sectors expand, waste conversion volumes will expand, thus driving more revenue generation, ensuring circularity. This model significantly changes the current paradigm of the ‘polluter pays’ to a ‘biotrash to cash’ approach; transforming biowaste generation from a liability into an asset and from a punitive approach to a rewarding one.”

“This approach,” the UWI researchers argued, “is a better green energy and sustainable tourism model for SIDS with polycrisis challenges (lack of jobs, high debt, pollution, health, waste management, etc.) like limited government expenditure, aged and inadequate infrastructure, heavy dependency on tourism, threatened maritime ecosystems, limited land space, and limited food production.”

They stressed the urgent need for data systems to monitor waste volumes and conversion efficiencies for economically viable products to support climate adaptation and carbon neutrality.

“Given this high dependence on tourism and trade, there are radiating vulnerabilities that emerge, which are amplified within the context of SIDS, given their inherent characteristics,” the CBS warned. “Tourism and trade are two key vulnerabilities to national and regional biosecurity systems globally, as was exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Tourists can generate up to twice as much solid waste per capita as residents, as seen in Saint Lucia, according to estimates cited by the centre.

“These estimates exclude sewage and wastewater, which would increase the waste generation volumes attributable to tourism,” it added. “Trade adds to the generation of waste in SIDS, further exacerbating the waste issue.”

Some 145 000 tons of waste per day are disposed of in open dumpsites across Latin America and the Caribbean, including 17 000 tons of plastic that often end up in waterways and oceans, the centre said.

“In Barbados, the daily generation of waste escalated from 936 tonnes in 2005 to 1 024.24 tonnes in 2015,” the CBS noted. “Like most countries, Barbados and other Caribbean states struggle with increasing waste volumes.

“In this policy brief, we frame the systemic vulnerabilities posed by climate, trade, and tourism, but will also present future solutions to reduce these vulnerabilities that threaten lives and livelihoods.”

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb