center of the region’s sustainability transformation. “This organization was established way back in 1996. In or around 2003 there was the establishment of the Deglos Sanitary Landfill,” Raynold explains. “So that facility still exists, and we are also looking to physically expand the facility to lengthen its lifespan.”The Deglos facility is a critical milestone for St. Lucia’s waste infrastructure, originally designed to replace an aging landfill at Ciceron that was approaching capacity. The Authority’s mandate is expansive. “We provide waste collection services to households and government institutions. Commercial entities will provide their own services where they would hire their contractors to collect their waste, but the central point of disposal would be the Deglos sanitary landfill,” Raynold notes. The organization also manages biomedical waste collection islandwide, operates waste oil collection points that supply three local businesses for energy generation, and handles specialized disposal for ships and aircraft visiting St. Lucian ports. COMPOSTING, RECYCLING, AND WASTE DIVERSION The Authority recognizes that traditional landfill operations alone cannot address St. Lucia’s waste challenges, particularly in a region where the Caribbean registers one-third more plastic waste per kilometer than the global average. Raynold acknowledges this reality directly: “Our legislation is dated, and we ought to be doing a lot more than we are doing right now in terms of diverting waste and in terms of reuse and reduction.” Central to the Authority’s sustainability efforts is an upgraded composting facility that has transformed from a small-scale operation into a revenue-generating enterprise. “A major milestone, maybe some five or more years ago, we established a composting facility and in the last two years has been upgraded. We have proper equipment, sifters, woodchippers, and we produce commercial quantities of compost,” Raynold explains. “We sell the compost to farmers, households, and whoever else is interested.”The facility plans expansion to the south of the island through the UBEC project, part of the $18 million in World Bank funding allocated to St. Lucia. Community engagement drives much of the Authority’s waste diversion strategy.The organization has distributed composters to approximately 200 households, enabling families to process organic waste at home.“At the household level they can divert waste and create a resource that they can use at home in their gardening,” Raynold notes. Meanwhile, 51 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 08 ST. LUCIA SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY
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