UNEP Endorses Rae Town Plastic Recycling Pilot Project

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.

“Your efforts, those of the agencies plus the community, are consistent with regional and global trends to address marine pollution and to keep our countries and seas clean. At UNEP we are currently working on a number of initiatives to support these efforts, and this plastic waste project is one such,” he added.

The project will seek to reduce the volume of waste entering the Kingston Harbour and provide income-generating opportunities around plastic recycling for community members, as well as enhance awareness of the impact of plastic pollution on the shoreline and in communities.

The initiative is part of the wider Plastic Waste Minimisation Project, which is being driven by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

Citing the successful local implementation of the ban on select single-use plastics, which took effect on January 1 this year, Mr. Sweeney commended the Government for its commitment in implementing practical measures in the interest of environmental protection.

“Jamaica is a regional leader and we are already seeing the impact of the plastic ban introduced in January, with a reduction of plastics found during the international coastal clean-up activities last month,” he said.

The Rae Town two-year initiative is being implemented by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) and funded by the Japanese Government, through the UNEP, at a cost of US$291,000.