Despite minor setbacks, President and CEO of Renew Bahamas Gerhard Beukes said the organization is making tremendous progress on its new Materials Recycling Facility.

Mr. Beukes announced construction plans for the multi-faceted facility earlier this year.

He informed The Bahama Journal last Friday that the 125,000 square foot facility is expected to solve one of the country’s biggest problems by formalizing recycling in the country and reducing future landfill fires.

“We’re probably about 10 days behind from when we spoke last. There have been a couple of delays. It’s very difficult to build an entire new facility on virgin soil where there’s no infrastructure in place,” Mr. Beukes said.

“We’re making very good progress. I think the next time you come there you’ll see that there is a significant structure up already and we’re looking to put some waste in the facility in early May,” he added.

Minister of the Environment Kenred Dorsett, who attended the organization’s first annual RecycleArt 2015 awards ceremony last Friday, commended Renew Bahamas officials for what he believes will resolve long-standing challenges at the landfill.

“While we have many NGOs who sought waste in their community efforts, a lot of the waste still ends up at the landfill with no resulting recycling efforts. That was one of the reasons the government decided to partner with Renew Bahamas to build a state-of-the-art Materials Recycling Facility so that recycling can become a reality in The Bahamas,” Mr. Dorsett said.

“I’m happy to note that we are well on our way to moving away from some of the challenges that we have experienced over the last four or five decades with the landfill. Not only will there be a state-of-the-art Materials Recycling Facility, but landfill remediation will be well on the way to hopefully avoid the sort of fires and emissions that we have sadly grown accustom to,” he added.

At the awards presentation, Mr. Beukes reiterated the benefits of the project that he believes will create a new recycling industry in the country and even prevent future fires at the landfill.

“It is what we have to do as a responsible society. In terms of the society that lives around the landfill, we’re actually taking combustible materials and recycling them so all of the materials that we’ve recycled already on a small scale and on the bigger facility will be recycled on a much larger scale,” said Mr. Beukes.

“By removing those combustible items from the landfill or preventing it from going to landfill you’re actually preventing future fires and you’re actually creating an industry because recycling is not a formal industry in the country as yet.

We’re trying to formalize the industry in the country,” he added.