Limits and Potential for Waste-to-Energy in

the Caribbean

ing. Kevin de Cuba, MSc.

Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Division
Department of Sustainable Development
Organization of American States (OAS)

Re-Caribe 2008: 14th Annual Wider Caribbean Waste Management Conference,

Grenada, June 26th, 2008
 What is Waste?

Waste: Is a material component,

energy or substance that:

• Is formed or disposed of as
result of industrial, service,
recreational and residential
human activities;
• Has lost its value and/or
functionality;
• Affects negatively the natural
environment (directly/indirectly)
that influences socio-economic
life.
 Waste Impact in the Caribbean

• In 2008 total of 6,781,537 • Almost 90 percent of this

garbage items were collected amount was debris from
from shoreline and land based sources
underwater sites in the wider
Caribbean region.
 Waste Impact in the Caribbean
• Sea and Coastal Area
pollution leads to high
impediments on tourism
• Landfills all over the development, public
Caribbean are/have reached health and ecological
their maximum capacity. services

Grand Cayman Island (2006)

US Virgin Islands
 Waste Impact in the Caribbean
• Improper planning and
landfill siting leading to
• Lack of enforcement of groundwater pollution
proper control and and other environmental
monitoring waste disposal problems
 Waste Management for SD

Proper Waste Management: Is integrating technical alternatives,

incorporate other sectors of economy (cause/solution) to
improve the collection, treatment and disposal of waste.

Clean Environment leads to:

• preventing public health risk
• preventing natural hazards risk
• improving aesthetically the urban surrounding;
• considerable reduction in investment needs for waste
water/solid waste disposal
• creation of environmental service companies (e.g.
recycling)
• all the above summing to ingredients for sustainable
development.
 Examples of Caribbean Energy
Rates (most expensive)

Primary Energy
consumption for Average
GDP
Gen. electricity production Elec.
Approx. (US$-
Country Utility Capacity (TJ) Rate
Population nominal)
(MW) (US$/
per cap. Petrol
Hydro Total kWh)
eum
Antigua &
69,108 13,092 APUA^ 61.4 100 . 100* 0.35
Barbuda
The Barbados
Light&Power
Barbados 280,946 13,605 240 20,046 . . 0.30
Company
Limited
Dominica 78,000 4,333 DOMLEC 22.0 429 135 564 0.45

Grenada 89, 703 5,571 GRENLEC 38.8 100 . 160* 0.30

St. Vincent &

117,848 5,229 VINLEC 33.1 78 22 95* 0.30
the Grenadines
*Measured in Millions of kWh
^Antigua Island Only

Average electricity price in USA: 0.11 US$/kWh (2007)

 Energy for SD in the Caribbean

Two main factors are driving the demand for reliable and affordable
energy services for sustainable development

1) The continued net population growth, the need and

increase of economic activities where energy is
indispensable and;

2) The ever increasing challenge for energy security due to

external global fossil fuel market developments leading
to expensive petroleum derived fuels as jet fuel, diesel,
fuel oil, or gasoline and increasing competition of
access to basic energy resources for power production
and transport fuels
 Waste and Energy

Waste is inexorably interlinked with Energy, because:

• all products manufactured, required an amount of

basic materials and energy to extract, manufacture
and transport;
• proper and responsible waste management and
disposal results in recovering large quantities of
materials or chemicals without losing their original
economic value in tandem with the highest possible
energy recovery (in some cases expressed as energy
savings).
 Possible Caribbean ambitions?

• Reduce the total amount of waste generated

• Materials/energy from waste should be used as
efficient as possible
– Assess recycling possibilities
• Reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfills
– Increase amount of biological treatment (e.g. composting)
– Enhance quality of waste for waste-to-energy
– Focus on increased energy output
• Minimizing the impact of waste on environment and
livelihood of our citizens
 What is Waste-to-Energy?

Waste-to-Energy: Is the overall

package of alternatives to
collect, treat and dispose of
waste:
• respecting the basic principles
of Integrated Waste
Management (R’s hierarchy)
• improving energy efficiency in MSW Incineration plant in Vienna

waste management practices;

• generate cleaner and
sustainable energy carriers as
(by)-product of IWMS for
sustainable development.
 Why Waste-to-Energy for
Caribbean SIDS?

Waste-to-Energy: an interesting RE/EE alternative, because of:

• need for reliable and affordable energy services;

• need for increase in use of indigenous energy sources
(waste) for energy security;
• decades of use of landfills as the “least cost” option for
solid waste disposal leading to space disposal limits;
• large amounts of materials are not technically or
economically feasible to recycle / re-use (under Caribbean
SIDS context).
• increased environmental problems due to improper waste
collection, treatment & disposal (waste water, MSW, etc.)
• possible generation of revenue streams for investments in
Waste Management systems
 Limits / Challenges to Waste-to-Energy
in the Caribbean (1)

• Lack of reliable information on waste management

practices applied in the Caribbean;
• Lack of basic waste generation and composition data;
• Weak and/or lack of regulatory framework to improve
waste management performance;
• Lack of policy and legal frameworks linking waste
management, environmental and energy issues;
• Poor resources planning to enhance the
socioeconomic and environmental benefits from
waste-to-energy.
 Limits / Challenges to Waste-to-Energy
in the Caribbean (2)

There is still a degree of public and political resistance towards

waste-to-energy (due to misconception of linking to WTE Plants);

No fiscal incentives to facilitate energy generation and energy

efficiency from or within waste management systems;

The challenge of centralizing or decentralizing waste management

responsibilities (example, the Bahamas);

The need for the identification of funding at the national; intraregional

and interregional levels;

The capital investment in waste-to-energy alternatives is “considered”

prohibitive for Caribbean nations.
Addressing the Problem
 Potential Waste-to-Energy routes

Source: Imports, Tourism, Industry, Transport,

Commerce, Residential, Agriculture, Landfill, etc.

Type of Waste: MSW, Sewage water, Ship-

Generated waste, agricultural waste, wood waste,
etc.

Conversion route: digesting, composting,

incineration, co-generation, bio-chemical treatment,
chemo-physical extraction, etc.

Energy carrier or product: biogas, landfill gas,

heat, electricity, fertilizer, cellulosic ethanol, bio-oil,
desalinated water, etc.
 Waste Management Hierarchy

Preferred

Sources
reduction
and reuse

Recycling/composting

Combustion with energy recovery

Least cost option

Landfilling and incineration without energy recovery

Processing Waste as
Energy Source
 Thank you!

ing. Kevin de Cuba, MSc.

Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Division
Department of Sustainable Development
Organization of American States (OAS)
E: kdecuba@oas.org
T: +1-202-458-6467