Karen McDonald Gayle | Why are circles important in the Caribbean

The Caribbean Sea is considered the second-most polluted sea in the world, after the Mediterranean, with up to 2,000 waste items per kilometre of coastline, 80 per cent of which are plastics, found across our shores.

From abandoned fishing equipment to commercial waste and residential litter, the sources of pollution are varied, but the impact is the same, biodiversity loss. For a region that relies heavily on tourism and ocean-based revenue streams, biodiversity loss cannot go unchecked.

According to the World Bank, over 300,000 tons of plastic is not collected in the Caribbean each year and 22 per cent of Caribbean households dispose of their waste in rivers and other waterways which carry that waste to the sea. This issue transcends borders and requires regional action beyond merely cleaning up the litter. We need to develop long-term, sustainable solutions across all sectors and industries to improve efficiency, by-products and waste created.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Finding ways to reuse, reduce, and recycle our waste will help shift our production chains and economies towards a circular model, where by-products and discarded materials are re-integrated into the manufacturing process. Creating these circular loops within our systems will ensure that we maximise natural resources, as well as our time and energy. This is the concept of the circular economy, and effective contribution to the SDGs requires transitioning to a circular economy. As regional stakeholders, we must work together to identify root causes of marine litter and improve our waste management systems.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in particular need to work on systems that move away from just using raw materials and creating waste (linear) to ensuring the use of raw materials and their products to the full extent possible – use and reuse (circular) with minimal waste of products. There is a need to increase the efficiency of industry and find innovative ways of recycling materials and residential waste into products and services. The circular economy has the capacity to usher in a more sustainable future for our economies and communities while reducing dependence on third-party fuel and materials imports.

CIRCULARITY IN THE CARIBBEAN

When I was growing up our parents saved and reused as second nature plastic bags, twist ties, and ice cream containers, sometimes to our embarrassment as children. We all had a sewing kit made from the Danish cookies tin. This was a start, but we need to move beyond the traditional methods of waste management that were adequate for preindustrial societies, but are no match for modern long-lasting materials. The effects of waste, especially plastic, within our marine ecosystems are well documented.

Countless marine animals have died as a result of entanglement or ingestion of waste, while pollution contributes to the degradation of natural habitats like mangroves, reefs, seagrass beds, and other zones critical to marine biodiversity. This in turn has a direct impact on local fishing, tourism, and on a wider scale, health and well-being. As such, it is imperative that we respond with ways to turn our waste into useful resources; this is something the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) and its partners have been working towards. A Caribbean circular economy is closer to reality than you might realise.

With support from the German Development Bank, the CBF has established a ‘Facility for Advancing the Circular Economy (ACE) that will finance around 20 individual projects that use circular economy principles to avoid waste from entering the marine environment or removing marine litter. The projects will be from specific countries within the insular Caribbean: Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. By increasing the capacities for circularity in these countries, more comprehensive action on the reduction of waste becomes possible. Furthermore, it provides a platform for us to develop across the Caribbean region.

PROTECTING OUR BIODIVERSITY

The system behind the ACE Facility mirrors that of successful Climate Change Programme’s Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Facility which has awarded 27 projects across 13 countries. As with the EbA Facility, we will target and showcase existing circular economy solutions that are practical for the Caribbean.

Through our research and project-building, the CBF has seen first-hand the innovative solutions that exist in the region along with the potential to tackle some of the major challenges we face such as biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and climate change adaptation. Together, with our key stakeholders, we are ready to protect regional biodiversity and ecosystems in the Caribbean by shifting to a better economic model that will benefit our local communities and safeguard future generations.

Karen McDonald Gayle is the chief executive officer of the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, is a regional umbrella environmental fund. She was the CEO of Environmental Foundation of Jamaica. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com