Recycling Finally Coming to Guyana

This message came from the Peace Corps admin, I presume copied from one of the Guyanese newspapers, the Stabroek News, Chronicle, or Keiateur. This would be a welcome addition to Guyana, which has a real problem with litter from plastic bottles. There are just heaps of them laying around everywhere, choking up gutters and blocking up waterways, which is one reason there was so much flooding there last year.

Plastic recycling factory to start up next month
By Nicosia Smith
Thursday, December 8th 2005

With plastics seen as a prime villain in major flooding this year there is hope on the horizon with a US$1.5M recycling factory to begin operating next month.

Horace Fordyce of Envirotec Recycling Enter-prise at Princes Street told Stabroek News in an interview on Tuesday that his company, a subsidiary of Trust Enterprises Canada Inc, plans to open the recycling plant in the compound of the incinerator after getting the necessary permission. Plastic waste, including the ubiquitous plastic bottles, will be processed for export. Eventually it is hoped to convert the plastic waste here into items such as crates.

The magnitude of the plastic waste problem was examined in a 2003 study done by Fordyce. According to Fordyce's study recycling can prevent bottles, plastic cups, plates, forks and spoons from entering the environment where they have posed major environmental and flooding headaches. According to the statistics, 7,811,214 pounds of legitimately recognized and tariffed plastic items entered Guyana in 2003.

In addition to illegally imported plastics, containers of petroleum by-products such as lubricants, degreasers, transmission fluids, brake fluids, window cleaners, pharmaceuticals and patent medicines, cosmetology and beauty enhancement products are imported and tariffed by content only.

"This is a serious oversight," Fordyce wrote in his findings, "as disposal of the containers are necessary."

To have this effectively and efficiently done a levy is required to defray its cost.

As the company begins operations it is hoped that the environmental levy placed on certain products will go to Envirotec to dispose of the waste generated. That levy on imported plastic containers goes into the Consolidated Fund.

Fordyce said he recently held discussions with Prime Minister Samuel Hinds about the plastic waste problem and the Prime Minister immediately initiated a scope- of-work collectively with the City Council to tackle the problem. Hinds also made the Princes Street location available and the City Council is unceasing in its efforts to ensure the January deadline is met.

Envirotec plans to set up more than 100 plastic waste depots and it is the agents of these depots who will collect the plastic. A price is yet to be determined for the various quantities of plastic.

Very shortly, a public education campaign will begin sensitising the public about the plastic waste problem. People will be urged to practise garbage separation and to deposit their plastic waste at the depots.

Optimum use of the plant machinery will depend on the steady supply of electricity. Fordyce said the cost of electricity "is really putting a stranglehold on business" but this would be vital to how many hours a day the plant works. Over US$1.5M is being spent to build the facility, inclusive of the machinery used.

Included in this cost as well is a plastic waste processing factory at Linden, located at a former bauxite mines machinery service workshop. Fordyce said, "some machinery is already here and operation can commence before the January 30 deadline."

This Linden site will cater for plastic items being taken into the interior locations and those generated on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. A staff of 60 will be responsible for the general operation of the network. It is also planned that this network will be extended to deal with the regions such as Berbice and Essequibo. Currently, Envirotec does in-house recycling for Banks DIH and Demerara Distillers Ltd (DDL), and Fordyce said that these companies maintain the mandate as it relates to environmental management.

This Princes Street recycling facility will also develop the capability to supply bio-degradable bags to replace the non bio-degradable bags now in use.

Fordyce opined that if the government should ban non bio-degradable plastic bags then the problem of waste as a result of their use will not exist.

"Plastic is here to stay," he said, since the world has moved to plastic but we can use bio-degradable plastic.

This company has similar waste recycling projects in Suriname, Barbados, Jamaica, the United States and Trinidad.

The recycled waste from Guyana will be shredded and shipped overseas and in the future a washing, clashing and injection moulding plant will be built, which will be able to use the recycled material to make items like crates.

Maybe There's Something To It After All

After I posted this post, I got a message from an anonymous reader. The message reads:

I am a Guyanese who have been reading your blog for some time now. I am glad to hear that you made it back home safely. I think, however, that you might not even now grasp the real danger that you were in.

I dont know you BTW. I just know some of the actors in this drama.

I must say, hearing this from a local Guyanese, one who evidently knows one or both of these people, gives the situation a lot more weight to me. I am more inclined to believe this from someone who has nothing to gain or lose whether I stayed in Guyana, unlike the CD, who several volunteers agreed was "gunning" for me, to see me dismissed for something -- anything. Our Safety and Security officer told me he legitimately believes I was in real, serious danger. (When I asked him if I was asked to resign so a new Country Director could make an example out of me, he replied, "What do you think?")

So, to my anonymous reader: Thank you. Your opinion on this matter means more to me than everything I've heard from anyone so far. I would love it if you could give me some more details or information, but I understand if you prefer not to. My e-mail can be found in my profile link on the right if you choose to. Otherwise, thanks again.

Before and After

I found this picture online, and had to take a second look. It's taken from the exact same place as this picture I took. Compare the two! Spooky.

Aloha Shirt Fridays

Because I didn't want to end my photos with a filthy trench and a cursed tree, I thought I'd toss in this picture of me in one of my typical aloha shirts. It was taken the night I was leaving Guyana for good. *sniff* So, aloha nui loa, Guyana. You shall live on in my dreams. But I'm glad to be getting my ass to Hawai`i.

Magic Tree

Not that it's readily apparent from this picture, but this is a magic tree. Located somewhere along the highway between Georgetown and New Amsterdam, this magestic tree was smack-dab in the center of where the government was putting in a road. But countless attempts to cut it down either ended in broken equipment or serious injuries to crewmen, so they finally decided to just split the road for about a hundred yards and leave the tree standing. It is said anyone who tries to harm this tree will suffer pain or death.

Trenchtown Rock

Taken in Georgetown just down the road from the Peace Corps office, this scene struck me as being both rustic and somehow lovely, though the trench water is a little off-putting. It's a very Guyanese (and Caribbean) look.

Another Perfect Day

Because I loved this view so much, I thought I'd share another great picture from my apartment's back porch. You'll notice this image is almost exactly the same as this one. You may not be able to tell, but the foreground tree on the left-hand side of the picture is a breadfruit tree. The coconut palms speak for themselves.

Town Hall

The legal and political center of New Amsterdam was the Town Hall, this large wooden structure on the Strand that also doubled as a market. I shot this picture on a Sunday I think, when nobody was around, otherwise it would be ten times more busy than it is.

Maybe I Should Call It "Town Night"

All three of these pictures were taken on the second night of the Town Day festival in New Amsterdam. The streets were jammed with people and it made for some excellent photo-taking. The first picture shows a food stand and the crowds in the dark. The second picture was a 30-second exposure I took by resting the camera on a bench and just getting whatever it would take. People walking by made an interesting squiggle pattern. Finally, the third picture is another 30-second exposure I took while the camera sat on the hood of a car. You can actually see the metal reflecting the greens and reds of the scene. In these last two pictures the constant motion of the crowd turned everyone into ghosts.

Here's Looking At You, Kid

This is a strange photo, but somehow I like it. In case you can't tell, I took this myself. We were having a small get-together on the night of Town Day and I wanted to immortalize the moment.