OECS members join forces to combat plastic pollution

This summer Saint Lucia took an important step towards becoming a plastic-free island with the launch of a new initiative that will see single-use plastic waste shipped to Martinique for recycling. It’s an ambitious project that highlights the importance of regional co-operation in tackling conservation challenges as organisers hope that the RePLAST initiative will eventually become the benchmark for the Eastern Caribbean.

RePLAST

The RePLAST OECS project kicked off in July following extensive consultation with environmental action groups, policymakers and development agencies. Under the scheme, which is being co-ordinated by UNITE Caribbean in partnership with the French Embassy in Saint Lucia and the OECS Commission, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles will be collected in Saint Lucia and then transported 33km to Martinique, home to an 

EU-funded recycling plant. The SIDREP plant processes plastic materials from Martinique, French Guiana and Guadeloupe but the facility is under-supplied, operating at just 25 per cent of its capacity.

Eager to maximise the plant’s impact, UNITE decided to spread its activities to other OECS member states and RePLAST was born. Picked as the testing ground, Saint Lucia will now undertake a two-year pilot phase before the initiative is introduced in other OECS member states. 

“Hopefully, with the success stories from this project we can whet the appetite of other islands and induce them to participate,” says Felix Finisterre, Senior Project Manager for the UNITE Caribbean Saint Lucia Office. “The project is predicated on successful regional co-operation. We had to build the project that way and use Saint Lucia as a bridge to work with the rest of the OECS.”

The initiative has been met with enthusiasm in Saint Lucia, according to Project Manager Genesis Vernaza who says: “The private sector and the government are giving us their support. They participated in the launch and it has been great to experience the community involvement.”

UNITE is working with the private sector to incentivise bottle collection in 10 to 12 communities in Saint Lucia. Discussions are currently ongoing but organisers hope to use either a depot system or reverse vending machines where people can drop off their single-use plastic bottles and receive a non-monetary reward in return. Finisterre says this may be delivered through an app where users can collect points or coupons for every bottle they deposit, and later use these points for discounts or rewards with a specific company.

Once enough bottles have been collected, they will be prepared for shipping. At present the team is considering two modes of transportation: via container loads or on a barge. The former is likely to be “cost prohibitive” according to Finisterre who says baling the bottles and placing them on a barge is the more probable solution.

Despite the logistical complexities, Finisterre is confident of a successful outcome for the pilot phase, saying: “We are optimistic. The challenge is that we are going into uncharted territory. This has not been done in these parts before and we are dealing with some fast-moving parts. We need to mobilise the community and get the private sector onboard with the recyclers in the middle. We have to work together and we will empower them and give them whatever support they need.”

Conservation concerns

PET is the most commonly used plastic in the world, ubiquitous in packaging and bottles. Unfortunately this makes it a major contributor to marine debris and landfills; the UN Environment Programme estimates that by 2050 the world’s oceans will contain more plastic than fish. Alert to the increasing threat of plastic pollution, Caribbean nations have been adopting more stringent conservation policies and embarking on public awareness campaigns to highlight the dangers plastics pose to the region’s biodiverse environment.

Saint Lucia’s government banned imports of styrofoam and selected plastic food containers in June 2019, to be followed by a phased-out elimination of those materials by June 2020. The RePLAST campaign dovetails with the government’s agenda to eventually weed out single-use plastic waste altogether and Finisterre says meetings with policymakers have been very productive. “Our project complements the government’s proposals. We will look to see how we can synergise the government thinking with our project. We are in the process of having those discussions and focusing on the way forward.”

The most effective conservation strategies are not simply a matter of top-down policy, but also involve grassroots buy-in. This is why public awareness is a large component of the RePLAST initiative. “Single-use plastics are a very serious problem so we want to do a lot of environmental education to have a long-term impact,” says Finisterre. “We are focusing on plastics but we believe there is a broader message to recycle and reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfill.”

Rolling it out

When the RePLAST pilot phase ends, organisers are hopeful that they will be left with a roadmap for the region. The initiative will be closely monitored by the OECS Commission to ensure the data and case studies are well-documented and used to draw up customised plans for the future.

Bottle collection is set to begin in December and Vernaza says UNITE hopes to make its first “experimental” shipment in January 2020. This will be followed by another shipment in the spring. By then the team hopes that other islands will have joined the scheme, with Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda already showing interest. 

In the long-term, UNITE wants the project to become a routine part of the Eastern Caribbean’s waste management strategy. Vernaza says: “The main goal is to be sustainable so that it will carry on even if we are not here. We cannot do this alone. We need everyone to participate.”