Recycling Food and Animal Waste for Social Good

The Team

• Carol Lue, CaribShare Biogas, Montego Bay, Jamaica, [email protected]
• Wale Adewunmi, Ph.D, Binomial Associates, Bridgewater, NJ, [email protected]

The Challenge

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, food waste accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is a major contributor to climate change. Its great majority, particularly in developing countries, is sent untreated to landfills, worsening an already severe environmental and climate hazard. For small island developing states such as the Caribbean, the problem is exacerbated as the land available for landfills is quite limited. In addition, in the Caribbean, tourism is a major food waste generator and source of greenhouse gas emissions. About 40% -50% of solid waste generated by the sector (hotels and cruise ships) are discarded food. However, the integration of organic waste recycling options into waste management for this sector remains a missed opportunity to significantly reduce the quantities of food waste entering the landfills and to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in a considerable way.

 

The Methods

Through Thriving Earth Exchange, CaribShare Biogas (CSB) engaged the expertise and service of Wale Adewunmi, a Soil and Environmental Scientist with nearly three decades of field and laboratory experience. His specialties include the environmental chemistry of soils and managing waste in soil, as well as reclaiming and remediating contaminated soils. Dr. Wale spent 2 weeks in Jamaica, working together with Carol Lue, the Executive Director of CSB, meeting with key stakeholders.

Specifically, he assisted with achieving the Organic Fertilizer Commercialization project objective by meeting with regulators and laboratory officials at the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ), in Kingston, an agency that sets product labeling requirements and provides testing services needed to assess the fertilizer’s safety and nutrient composition. He consulted with the Bureau’s testing laboratory to review its ability to perform the tests required to characterize the digester product. And, once the fertilizer sample was tested, Dr. Wale then interpreted the results to determine the fertilizer’s Nitrogen – Potassium – Phosphorus (NPK) ratio, the essential element for the product labelling. With this labelling information, the fertilizer has been packaged and is now market ready.

[caption id="attachment_21531" align="alignright" width="439"] Wale Adewunmi harvesting organic fertilizer[/caption]

Additionally, Dr. Wale also assisted with achieving the Organic Fertilizer Adoption project objective by meeting with key stakeholders and potential users of the organic fertilizer: small farmers in Braco, Trelawny, a commercial farmer at Rose Hall, and a Field Extension Manager with the Rural and Agricultural Development Authority (RADA). Dr. Wale orientated these stakeholders to the organic fertilizer, promoting its merits.

To fund Dr. Wale’s trip to Jamaica, CSB received financial assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its country representative, ACDI/VOCA.

In addition to Dr. Wale’s 2 weeks engagement with CSB in Jamaica, the team would meet monthly or as needed via skype calls.

 

The Results

[caption id="attachment_21536" align="alignleft" width="356"] Packaged CaribShare organic fertilizer[/caption]

Essentially, Dr. Wale determined the fertilizer’s Nitrogen – Potassium – Phosphorus (NPK) ratio, the essential element for the product labelling. With this labelling information, the fertilizer has been packaged and is now market ready. The buyers of the major agro stores are now currently trying the product in anticipation of having island wide distribution soon.

The small farmers in Braco Trelawny have benefitted from the project by receiving free fertilizer to help enhance their crop productivity and yields.

Additionally, the farming community in general, both small and commercial farms, will benefit now by having a reliable and affordable source of premium organic fertilizer in CaribShare. CSB is filling a great market need as the other organic fertilizer brands on the market are imported and more costly. With the successful implementation of this pilot along with plans to develop additional biogas plants in other parishes, CSB is therefore positioning itself to promote and increase the use of organic fertilizer as well as organic farming across the country.

Hopefully, other communities will be inspired to recycle and make productive use of their organic waste in this way, while encouraging organic farming.

 

Reflections

The team attributes the following factors to their success:

• Flexibility with time as both team members had demanding and often unpredictable schedules.
• Care and passion for the work allowed the team to be resourceful in achieving the project goals with limited resources.

If they were to do this project again, Carol and Wale would seek additional time and funding to engage more stakeholders, such as more farmers and farming groups.

For others pursuing similar community science projects, the team recommends working towards long term funding, and be open to continuing the work beyond the duration of typical Thriving Earth Exchange projects.

Montego Bay is located on the northern coast of Jamaica, the main tourist region in the island. While tourism is a leading economic driver and employment source, it is also one of the largest waste generator in the country.  Immense potential exists to sustainably dispose and turn waste from this thriving industry into energy, environmental, and social benefits.

 

Like much of the Caribbean, Jamaica faces challenges in adapting to climate change and becoming more resilient. Hotels in the vicinity are interested in taking sustainability initiatives to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the area and the island. Likewise, farmers would like to increase their yield despite the adverse effect climate change may have on their locales.

 

CaribShare Biogas is a social enterprise and registered charity in Jamaica solving the challenges of renewable energy, climate change, and rural poverty in the Caribbean. CaribShare turns organic waste from hotels and small pig farms into biogas and fertilizer for sale, to help solve the challenges energy access and rural poverty in Jamaica.

 

In the early stages of converting hotel waste to fertilizer, CaribShare is looking for assistance in understanding how the fertilizer will help local crops and what other types of fertilizers could be developed from the waste they will receive from both hotels and local farms. Much of the work CaribShare has done is on the designing of the plant and focusing upon biogas. They would now like to get technical advice and expertise to develop appropriate fertilizers for the region.

Contact

Carol Lue, Executive Director, CaribShare Biogas will serve as community lead on this project.

CaribShare Biogas has a few recent university graduates that would benefit from shadowing the selected scientist(s).

CaribShare Biogas is open to working with a local or international scientific partner.

Community Lead

Carol Lue is the Founder and Executive Director of CaribShare Biogas, a social enterprise in Jamaica recycling organic waste into clean energy and fertilizer. As a 2012 winner of the IDB’s 2012 Ideas Energy Innovation Contest, CaribShare is pioneering biogas solutions in the Caribbean. In partnership with Ch4 Biogas, a leading Canadian biogas design-engineering firm, they are operating the first biogas plant in Jamaica designed to generate electricity on a sustained basis. They plan to expand throughout the Caribbean to capture the huge underused supply of organic waste coming from hotels and farms in the region.

After working in business, international development, and sustainability for over 15 years in North America, Carol returned home to fulfill her passion of developing a social enterprise that would both build climate resilience and strengthen rural livelihoods. CaribShare diverts organic waste from landfills, increases the use and supply of organic fertilizer, and provides farmers generous cash rewards as meaningful income for supplying their waste. Carol holds a MBA degree in International Economics & Finance from Brandeis International Business School and a MS degree in Environmental Planning from the University of Toronto.

 

Scientific Partner

Wale Adewunmi is a Soil and Environmental Scientist with nearly three decades of field and laboratory experience. In addition to managing biosolids utilization and quality, he conducts studies related to critical water quality issues and provides solutions to process issues in wastewater operations and biosolids management. His previous work includes land-application of biosolids, biodegradation of PCBs, pesticide transport and analysis, fate of compounds of emerging concern in wastewater and soil environments. A Certified Professional Soil Scientist, he holds Ph.D in Environmental Science, M.S. in Soil Science, and B.S. in Agronomy. He is a member of the Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Water Environment Federation and the International Union of Soil Science where he promotes protection of water resources, and advances soil science education among K-12 students.

https://thrivingearthexchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Female-Entrepreneur-Pioneering-Organic-Waste-Recycling-in-Jamaicas-Tourism-Sector-1.pdf