Rishard Khan

The Port of Spain West Rotary Club launched a boom in the Maraval River on Wednesday to collect and upcycle some of the 204,000 kilogrammes of plastic that flows through it annually before ending up in the ocean.

The boom stretches across the river near the Marriott Hotel, floating just above the surface and supported by buoys. Placed at an angle, the boom will stop plastic in its track and channel it towards the eastern bank for removal and upcycling.

During the launch, the club's environment committee director, Frank Teelucksingh, said TT is the sixth highest plastic polluter in the Caribbean and the fifth largest culprit globally per capita for mismanaged waste.

"These are two statistics that we want to affect or drop us down in those rankings," he said.

He said the group hoped to recycle the plastics recovered, but realised they were too degraded.

Despite this, he said, they will instead be upcycled by Flying Tree Environmental Management into building materials. He said some 60,000 plastic bottles can be used to create a park bench.

In an interview with Newsday after the launch, Teelucksingh said the goal is eventually to expand the initiative to all the rivers across the country.

He said this pilot project will "write the book" for how this project can become sustainable and expanded.

"The hope is we will learn all the obstacles and impacts of this project, learn how to manage it and then transfer that knowledge to other bigger rivers in Trinidad and Tobago," he said.

For sustainability, he said the group hopes one day to be able to employ those from nearby communities to collect and transfer the plastic.

"We will teach them how to do it. We will give them the PPE that they need, and we will pay them a stipend as well to come and clean the plastic.

"That's all part of the funding that we're trying to get for this project. That's how it's going to be sustainable. A lot of times things start and they don't continue, but our goal is to make sure that this is going on for years and years and years."

For now, he said, companies are sponsoring the process every month. He hopes, in 2024 the project can enter phase two, implementation in the Diego Martin River.

The club's president, Wayne Herbert, said tit welcome scollaboration with local and international agencies to extend the programme across the country. He also called on citizens to care for and protect the environment more.

Also speaking during the launch, Minister of Planning and Development Pennelope Beckles said 2022's local International Coastal Cleanup exercise collected 33,882 plastic bottles and 17,479 pieces of plastics from various sources.

She described the club's project as providing "a ray of hope."

She also committed to getting the Beverage Container Bill before the legislative review committee.

The UN Development Programme's Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme  funded the project.

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