The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

RENEW  Bahamas, the New Providence landfill operator, said yesterday that “fundamental changes” at the site were necessary to eliminate persistent fires, including more “vigorous” enforcement of the non-acceptable materials policy.

  Gerhard Beukes, Renew Bahamas’ chief executive, admitted that tackling issues at the landfill would be “no quick fix”.

“We have obviously had our challenges with the fires, and we have pulled off a lot of resources to make sure that we put out these fires and do it as quickly as possible,” Mr Beukes said.

“We’re still trying to ramp up production in terms of our recycling programme. We have been identifying new product streams. We have been making some small changes. We have also, over the last couple of weeks, been developing our longer term plans for what we propose to do with the landfill. There are some changes that we need to make from the operations side which would invoke wider industry involvement.”

    Mr Beukes added: “We need to enforce the regime of non-acceptable materials more vigorously, and that needs to be enforced with everyone, not just us and the Government; everyone has to make an effort to ensure that non-acceptable material doesn’t end up in the landfill - from ammunition to animal carcasses, anything that produces harmful emissions must not be allowed to enter the landfill and must be treated separately.

“The key thing remains that we are going to make changes to the way things are done because it’s not a quick fix. There is no quick fix for this process. It’s not a case of simply directing  as much resources as possible at it and saying now you have a solution within a week. We can’t demand change if we are unwilling willing to change the way we do things.”

The Government has awarded Renew a five-year contract, lasting until 2018-2019, to manage the landfill and deal with problems that have built up over decades.

To finance operations and ensure a profitable return on its $8 million investment, Renew Bahamas has developed a materials recycling facility at the site, which turns incoming waste streams into product that can be exported.