BVI News

Local recycling company collects 117 tonnes of waste in 2 months

Some of the waste collected by Green and Clean VI in March and April this year.

In the last two months alone, waste recycling company Green & Clean VI collected more than 117 metric tonnes of waste that would have typically ended up in the dumps on Virgin Gorda or Tortola.

To put it into perspective, this equals the combined weight of approximately 17 fully-grown male African elephants.

The contents of the 117-tonne collection specifically comprise 5,287lbs of plastic bottles; 1,200lbs of cling wrap; 2,980lbs of beverage cans and food tins; 2,230lbs of e-waste (computer, printers, etcetera); 5,700lbs of scrap metals; 2,37,600lbs glass aggregate; and 253lbs organic material. 

According to the Managing Director of Green & Clean VI, Julie Swartz, the waste will be shipped in a 40-foot container by mid-June, if all goes as planned.

More about Green & Clean VI

Swartz said her Virgin Gorda based-company has been in existence for the last six years and most of the items are collected from Virgin Gorda and Tortola.

“We provide sustainable waste disposal services for money for customers like the Government House and TICO. We export the majority of waste that we collect to the end markets outside the BVI,” she told BVI News on Sunday.

Due to the threat of the COVID-19 her company is taking extra precautionary measures to protect its staff during collection.

She said the recyclable items are taken up first thing in the morning, after being left outside from the previous night.

“So we don’t have any contact with people. Some materials we spray down and disinfect it, and we always wear our personal protective equipment, as standard procedure,” she said.

Swartz said she hopes government will soon want to have private sector businesses like her company involved with recycling and disposal of recyclable items instead of disposing these items at the waste disposal dumps.

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12 Comments

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  1. Tell me says:

    What is done with the proceeds of this operation?

    Like 4
    Dislike 17
    • seriously? says:

      Its their profit to do with as they please. Be happy there is less items at the incinerator to catch a fire.

      Like 28
  2. negatively speaking says:

    The dance cant pay for the lights…..The same money collected will barely be able to pay for the shipping cost…..Waste ah time and effort

    Like 2
    Dislike 17
    • Green+Clean says:

      @ negatively – maybe that would be a good reason to start spending your waste disposal dollar sustainably! Support your local Recycler!

  3. Hmm says:

    Where is the final destination because China among other countries that use to take this stuff from the world have stopped accepting recycled materials . It is actually a major problem . I hope this stuff is actually recycled and not sent to another country where it will sit in a land waste. This seems to be the trend . Half of this stuff never actually get recycled. But good initiative I must say.

    Like 16
    • Green+Clean says:

      @Hmm – different waste streams go to different markets. China has not stopped accepting plastic for recycling, they stopped accepting “garbage” – mixed contaminated plastics. Proper sorting & processing of uncontaminated materials allows us to find viable & reputable end markets for the materials we export.

  4. Archie says:

    Nice job! But you guys missed one by the name of Inez

  5. Lodger says:

    I thought they were supposed to be making things?

    • LOL says:

      Dem meking money

    • Green+Clean says:

      @Lodger – there are a number of people who use recycled materials as raw materials in manufacturing here in the BVI – Annie MacPhail uses old sails to make designer bags, Greencrete, and other Trades People, use glass aggregate in cement, VI Plastics uses specific plastics to make composite lumber, a number of people make furniture from pallets – just to name a few. Green and Clean Recycles! We turn empty glass bottles into gravel & sand for Contractors to use in local applications, and process waste for sustainable disposal and best practices defined globally.

  6. Understanding Recycling says:

    There seems to be some confusion about recycling here based on the comments and maybe the making of a follow up article.

    Green and Clean, whom this article profiles, are a BVI business licensed to recycle. They have all the logistics in place to recycle, collect from those who want to pay a small fee, process and deal with the recycling they are collecting. If you think it is a profitable entity, just try it out – it probably took years to put all the pieces together. What it does do is 1. help clean up the BVI and 2. employ people. So it seems to me to be a win-win.

    This article explains how much waste they – Green and Clean, divert that actually leaves the Territory and what stays here and why. As a business, why would Green and Clean give anyone their hard earned/researched trade secrets as to who is taking our recycling that they are exporting? If you read articles on the brighter side of recycling, there are many countries that have innovative solutions. It’s not always all about China.

    This business, Green and Clean, is not to be confused with Green VI (see the confusion? Similar names?) and Unite BVI who have placed sponsored recycling bins all over the island since the COVID-19 lock down. Amazing effort and great to see this going on. It is way overdue. Remember those guys, Green VI? They had a glass blowing studio in CGB 4-5 years ago and now seem pretty active in the media and social media promoting all the great stuff they are doing to green the BVI as a non-profit.

    My next question which might warrant the follow up article I mentioned is: what is the non-profit doing with the recycling it is having collected around the Territory? Does it also get processed and leave the Territory? How can we find out where all that is going so we know it is also a win-win? @Hmm I get your drift.

  7. Caribbean Girl says:

    We need an educational campaign, starting with the young in schools, to reuse, and generate less garbage. It’s a big problem and if we don’t change our way of generating so much garbage, this small island will be in big trouble.

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