Presentation at the PR Professional College of Chemists, Spring Conference 2019

On March 15th, 2019, Puerto Rico's Professional College of Chemists celebrated their Annual Spring Conference. A concurrent section dedicated to Solid Waste Management on the island was prepared, where agency representatives as well as representatives from the consulting sector presented their version of Puerto Rico's waste management situation. 

Among the speakers, Mr. Fernando L. Rodríguez, PE, President of our company as well as of the SWANA Caribbean-PR Chapter, presented an educated third-party perspective on the Solid Waste Industry. Among other important topics, such as Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR), the session provided the audience well-rounded perspectives on the issues our island is currently facing. 

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The main focus of Mr. Rodríguez was not only to continue educating and promoting an Integrated Solid Waste Management System-type of decision-making but also to contrast the so-called "waste management crisis" as it stood prior and after the 2017 Hurricane Season. 

Conclusions he presented to the audience involved the call to move to truly promoting waste reduction as well as the following actions as part of a post landfill-era. Actions such as:

• Evaluating the industry as a whole on the island, including economically evaluating the impact of not creating or improving sustainable markets for generated waste and recyclable materials.
• Move to develop and implement a sustainable Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) Plan.
• ​Improve technical education and financial transparency in Local Government Units (LGU), or municipalities, so we are able to thoroughly evaluate different Pay as You Throw (PAYT) alternatives.

Other speakers provided realities faced in local agencies as well as in communities with illegal dumping.