00:00Even if the Beetham landfill transitions into an area where waste is sorted for recycling,
00:06or if it is abandoned entirely, the site will continue to emit methane, also called landfill
00:12gas, for several years. So says Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Management Authority,
00:18Dr. Joth Singh, against the backdrop of two recently concluded reports funded by the British
00:24High Commission to action plans toward the net zero goal by 2050. And while there have been
00:30longstanding talks of shutting down the landfill because of its harm to the environment, Dr. Singh
00:36indicates that there isn't total buy-in. I think we all know that there are many people who generate
00:44a livelihood from scavenging and harvesting other things from the site. So it's not simply a matter
00:52of closing it. It's a matter of identifying how you will address those social issues as well.
00:58And so the government is looking at organizations within Trinidad and Tobago to see how we can
01:04stop the deposition of waste at the Beetham area. That is going to take some time. It will have to
01:10be phased. Forest Park is intended to be a sanitary landfill and an environmental impact assessment
01:17is underway. There is an application for a certificate of environmental clearance, which is in front of
01:22the EME. So all those things need to be, you know, moved forward. It sounds like several years
01:28again. It might not be several years, but it's moving, I think more importantly. And while the idea of
01:34recycling has been raised again in relation to managing waste as part of the net zero plan, Dr. Singh
01:40highlights a hurdle to doing so. There are no recycling facilities in Trinidad and Tobago. And the reason for
01:47that is that it's not economically feasible to have a recycling facility just for plastics generated in
01:54Trinidad. You need a regional facility. He tells us there have been discussions about it at a level
02:00of CARICOM spanning several years. But no one wants to have a facility where waste is brought in to your
02:07country. Another issue is that money can be lost against rising shipping costs in a scenario where
02:14plastics are shredded and converted locally for reuse outside of the country. So instead,
02:20the EMAC is placing more responsibility on entities causing the problem as a better solution. Chief
02:27Executive Officer of Consulting Engineering and Associates Limited Ryan Roper agrees. His company
02:33conducted the research and generated the pathways to net zero reports. The fastest way really is about
02:40preventing plastics from coming into the country. And so how do you come up with legislation, ideas,
02:46and taxes potentially? And what are some of the solutions for plastics, containers, etc?
02:51Chief Executive Officer of Consulting Engineering Plastic generation in the private sector is that it's
02:54an externality to doing business. It is not factored into their cost in terms of doing business. So the
03:02waste is generated. It's thrown into the environment. No one has the responsibility for taking care of it. And so,
03:09you know, this is what we need to look at. Dr. Singh says a deposit fund scheme is also an
03:14idea.
03:15The bill for that should really be footed by the private sector who are bringing it in. So they're
03:20saying, okay, if bottles that we're bringing in is dumped into the environment, we will pay you X amount
03:25of money to bring it back to the facility. The EMA believes a reactivation of the beverage containers bill
03:32will aid in moving forward. Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
03:39Subtitle for Academic dairy принster
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