The $24 million Cell Four facility at Mangrove Landfill will take its first set of garbage in December to test the systems there.
However, the 15-acre facility, which is to relieve residents of Arch Hall, Bennetts and some areas of the West Coast from the smells emanating from “Mount Stinkeroo”, will not be in full operation until June 2012.
During a tour yesterday with Sanitation Service Authority board members, Minister of the Environment Denis Lowe said he was happy with the way the project was proceeding.
“Our main concern is to be able to close Cell Three and open Cell Four and ensure that we keep our commitment to the residents of the greater St Thomas area, including the resorts going down the West [Coast].
“It is in keeping with our greening economy and we are excited about the progress being made,” Lowe stated.
The minister pointed out that Cell Four represented money well spent, noting it would mitigate pressing climate changes.
“Once the waste energy plant comes on stream then we will not have to put solid waste in here.
“What this will accommodate is the residue from the waste water plant, which is a minimal amount of ash, so from that perspective the shelf life is almost infinity,” Lowe said as he surveyed the site where tractors, bobcats and trucks busily moved back and forth as they prepared the area.
A leachate plan will also be located at Mangrove and this will help prevent any contaminated water from seeping into the water system.
Lowe also used the chance to tour the nearby Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre, which is a Government/private sector initiative.
The centre has been recycling a wide range of items and is manufacturing coconut and wood mulch, wood chips, screened soil, green waste mulch, handpicked coconut fibre, land reclamation clean-fill material and soil mix manure.
The facility is hoping to work soon with the sargassum seaweed that has been covering many of the island’s beaches.
Marketing and sales manager Susan Ryan-Graham revealed that the company was already in discussion with the National Conservation Commission with a view to having the commission supply an adequate amount of seaweed to the recycling centre.
“Of course, we can utilize the seaweed. We would like to get some here that we can blend with our mulch. I imagine that would be an additional product, but we would need to mix it with the mulch and process it carefully.
“We can utilize it here because there is a market for it, and we can incorporate it into our existing mulch,” Ryan-Graham said.
