Solid waste management is an increasingly urgent challenge for the Caribbean region. Each day, tons of solid waste are either burnt in the open air or discarded in open-air dumps, local waterways, or in the environment. Eighty-percent of marine litter in the Caribbean comes from land-based sources of solid waste, mainly plastics. The failure to better manage solid waste has grave public health and environmental impacts, as well as economic costs, not least given the importance of tourism to many of the region’s economies.
This report offers a comprehensive review of the legislative frameworks for solid waste management in the Caribbean, inclusive of regional and country-level strategies, plans of action and requirements/guidelines to determine the gaps and opportunities for legal and institutional strengthening. It also assesses and maps all solid waste management actions and programmes in the region to determine their scope, impacts and areas in which additional interventions may be necessary to address priority needs.
In addition, it provides technical assistance to CARIFORUM and EUD Barbados in the identification of opportunities for policy development and implementation of innovative interventions to improve solid waste systems in selected Caribbean countries, paving the way for future circular economy investments in the region.