Three Bahamian waste companies have formed a joint-venture partnership in hopes of convincing the government to allow the company to manage the capital’s landfill.

The companies include Bahamas Waste, United Sanitation and Wastenot.

According to a press statement sent by the companies recently, the coalition sent a joint proposal to the government and hopes to hear from officials in a matter of weeks.

Each of these three companies had previously submitted landfill management proposals.

“Our proposal will benefit the whole of New Providence by bringing the landfill under control and by using both the accumulated and the daily incoming waste to produce clean energy at a lower cost and generate funds that will help defray the multi-million dollar cost of managing the landfill,” the coalition said.

The companies say they believe their proposal will address the critical waste disposal issues that have plagued the New Providence Landfill for over 30 years.

Some of these issues include toxic fires, volatile gases and poisonous leachate, which constantly threaten the health and safety of the surrounding neighbourhoods.

“The proposal will include building new infrastructure to handle future waste and controlling costs by enforcing globally recognised landfill management standards,” the statement said.

“It will incorporate a recycling facility to retrieve and re-use appropriate materials and a waste to energy plant to use the remaining garbage to eliminate the amount of waste that needs to be landfilled. Funds from the sale of the electricity can help defray the costs of running the landfill, which will in turn free up public funds that the government must currently borrow to operate the landfill.”

While the companies are still in discussion with the government over how much capital expenditure would be required, the companies say they will need to put a substantial amount of infrastructure in place.

“There is a pressing need to purchase proper machinery for compacting and maintaining the landfill and its environs as the current machinery is broken or missing and the government is renting machinery,” the coalition said.

“Bringing in specific machinery will lower costs and allow for a better compaction of landfilled waste, which in turn conserves space. Another lined cell needs to be brought on-stream as soon as possible to accept waste. Overall there needs to be better security, safety and general organisation and maintenance of the active areas of the landfill and possibility relocation of the entrance way the busy highway to a less traveled side road.”

The coalition is ultimately hoping that if privatised the landfill could become a publicly traded entity.

It is also hoping to transform the landfill’s waste into energy to also provide an alternative to the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC).

“The Bahamian public can benefit from two ways – a lower electricity rate and the income generated from the sale of electricity would help hold the tipping fees down,” the statement said.