St. Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority

Turning Regional Waste Crisis into Economic Opportunity

Innovative Engineering, Community Partnerships, and $18 Million in World Bank Funding are Transforming Waste Management into a Revenue-Generating Cornerstone of the Caribbean’s Blue Economy.

Twenty-eight years after its parliamentary inception, the St. Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority has become one of the Caribbean’s most comprehensive waste management operations, processing 80,000 tons of garbage annually through a network throughout the entire island. What began as a World Bank-funded project in 1996 has evolved into a statutory body managing everything from household collections to biomedical waste disposal, with General Manager Joanna Raynold leading an organization at the 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 island-wide, 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, the upcoming plastics collection initiative will work directly with schools and communities to divert recyclable materials to processors, addressing a waste stream that comprises 24% of Caribbean municipal solid waste according to recent regional studies.

Infrastructure Investment and Modernization

The Authority’s infrastructure development strategy depends heavily on external funding partnerships, a reality that shapes every major project decision. “Everything we do depends on projects and donations from various funding agencies,” Raynold states plainly. This funding model has enabled significant equipment acquisitions, including a recently purchased landfill-grade bulldozer and additional machinery expected through the UBEC program.

A critical staffing addition has accelerated the pace of infrastructure improvements. “One of the things that was lacking in the authority’s staff structure was a civil engineer with the requisite experience that could direct the proper management of the landfill,” Raynold explains. “He will be responsible for the rehabilitation of the landfill, the leachate collection and management system, the proper organization of the tipping face into cells, and proper practices like covering of the waste, proper compacting.”

The rehabilitation project addresses fundamental operational deficiencies at the Deglos facility, originally projected to reach capacity by 2023 but now being extended through systematic improvements. Meanwhile, the Authority is conducting feasibility studies for a second landfill in the south through UBEC funding, a project that would eliminate the current costly practice of transporting waste from Vieux-Fort to Castries. “We are actively seeking to establish a landfill to service the south of the island,” Raynold notes, highlighting the geographic challenges of managing waste across St. Lucia’s 617 square kilometers while serving a population of 180,000 people.

Creative Solutions and Project Revival

The arrival of fresh engineering expertise has unleashed a wave of practical innovation at the Authority, transforming long-standing operational challenges into opportunities for cost-effective solutions. A prime example is the creation of an alternative road to the landfill’s tipping face, a project that had stalled for years until the new civil engineer developed an unexpected approach.

“The entire two years that I was there, it was a longing and perhaps we just didn’t have the requisite expertise,” Raynold recalls. “With the engineer’s arrival, not only has this road work commenced, but he has actually come in with very innovative ideas. He has found a cost-effective way of dealing with the construction of that road and using a resource that we have on the landfill that we can’t do very much with. And that is tires.”

The solution involves using the Authority’s accumulated tire stockpiles in mechanical concrete for road surfacing, addressing both infrastructure needs and waste disposal challenges simultaneously. “We have piles and piles and thousands of tires, and we shred them and use them as intermediate cover, but now he has come up with this whole idea of mechanical concrete and we’ll be using some of those tires to surface the road,” Raynold explains.

Beyond engineering innovations, the Authority is reviving successful community programs that had ended due to project funding cycles. The new plastics collection initiative builds on the earlier RePLAST project, which had established popular collection depots in northern communities. “There was this project, but we didn’t play a major role, but they had set up those pop-up depots and people were bringing their plastics and were very excited to do so,” Raynold notes. “Through the community and schools’ plastic collection initiative, we will provide that continuity.”

Leadership, Talent, and Organizational Challenges

Recruiting qualified staff for waste management positions comes with unexpected difficulties in a region where unemployment remains a persistent concern. “People complain that there are no jobs and young people out there are qualified. But when we advertise, sometimes you get zero applicants or you get applicants that are not suitable for the position,” Raynold observes. When the Authority advertised for the critical civil engineer position, only three candidates applied.

The recruitment challenges may signify the specialized nature of waste management, a field that lacks formal educational pathways in the Caribbean. “Solid waste management is a specialized area of study, and I cannot think of anyone that I’m aware of either working with the authority or in my professional setting that has actually gone into that line of study,” Raynold explains. “All of our staff, except for the new engineer, have absolutely no training in solid waste management. They grew on the job and learned what they do on the job.”

Current recruitment efforts for a project officer to lead the plastic collection initiative have yielded eight applicants, though Raynold notes that “when you preview them, the pickings are pretty slim.” The organization plans to conduct a comprehensive review of existing capacity and organizational needs to address these systemic staffing challenges.

Despite recruitment obstacles, Raynold finds the role personally rewarding, particularly given the tangible impact possible with adequate resources and personnel. “Compared to other roles that I’ve been engaged in, I find it pretty rewarding because you have that measure where you can make things happen in the short term once you have the required financing or financial support and the right staff,” she reflects.

Strategic Priorities for 2025-2026

The Authority’s immediate focus centers on existing infrastructure and new programs that could transform St. Lucia’s waste management landscape. “I would definitely say rehabilitation of our existing facilities, the conduct of the feasibility study for the new landfill sites in the south, starting off our plastic collection initiative,” Raynold outlines. These priorities align with the UBEC project timeline, which positions waste management as a cornerstone of the Caribbean’s blue economy development.

Equipment modernization offers a significant cost-saving opportunity for the organization. The Authority currently contracts out expensive services that could be performed internally with proper machinery. “The bulldozer is already on the port. We have a tire slicer that’s already on the port. We have some equipment coming in for the composting program,” Raynold reports. Two tractor heads arriving within months will enable the Authority to transport waste from the south using their own walking-floor trailers rather than relying on contractors.

Innovation in service delivery also caters to underserved communities, particularly settlements in the Castries basin where traditional collection methods prove impractical. “We have unplanned settlements on marginal lands where we can’t provide curbside collection. So, we are looking to pilot a micro haulers program,” Raynold explains. This initiative could provide a replicable model for similar Caribbean communities facing geographic constraints.

As St. Lucia positions itself within the broader regional effort to combat plastic pollution and develop sustainable waste management systems, the Authority’s evolution from a simple collection service to a comprehensive waste diversion operation highlights the urgent environmental and economic imperatives facing small island developing states. The organization’s success in balancing immediate operational needs with long-term sustainability goals will likely influence waste management strategies across the Caribbean region.

AT A GLANCE

WHO: St. Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority (SLSWMA)

WHAT: Statutory body responsible for comprehensive waste management, processing 80,000 tons annually across tourism, household, and biomedical waste streams

WHERE: Castries, St. Lucia

WEBSITE: sluswma.org

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