Head of the Caribbean Sub-Regional Office, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Vincent Sweeney, says the organisation fully endorses the Rae Town Plastic Recycling Pilot Project, in Kingston, being implemented as a viable option to improve and diversify the country’s solid waste management programme.
“We are very pleased to see this tangible, on-the-ground project being launched where we can collectively demonstrate the benefit of new community-led approaches to address waste management in Jamaica,” Mr. Sweeney said at the launch of the pilot project on Tuesday (October 29), at the Courtyard by Marriott, in New Kingston.
The two-year project is being implemented by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) and funded by the Japanese Government through the United Nations Environment Programme at a cost of US$291,000.
This initiative is part of the wider Plastic Waste Minimisation Project, which is being driven by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).
Speaking at the launch of the project yesterday at the Courtyard by Marriott in New Kingston, director, Planning, Projects Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Division, NEPA, Ainsworth Carroll, said a critical component is community engagement.
“Communities need to be engaged with the environmental agenda. There are two major objectives of this project — to reduce the number of plastic waste entering the marine environment, and to create alternative livelihoods from recycled plastics,” Carroll explained.
“The project is a very good one. It is also aligned to where Jamaica wants to be as a country. We have some broad development goals, which align with Vision 2030. These goals speak of Jamaica having a healthy natural environment and the Jamaican economy being prosperous. What you do at the community level affects our environment,” he added.
