By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE WASTE management entity, Caribbean Paper Recycling Company Ltd., (CPR), has missed its preliminary deadline for selecting a site to establish its new multi-million dollar recycling plant slated for western Jamaica.
Last month, the company announced that it would wrap up the site selection process for the plant by the end of January, but failed to meet that timeline.
"We would have liked land adjacent to the Retirement landfill (in St. James), to work out a joint concept with the National Solid Waste Management Authority, but that has still not yet been worked out," said Phillip Corrigan, President of CPR in an interview with The Gleaner on Monday.
NEGOTIATIONS
"We would have loved to have settled the matter already, but so far that has not been done."
According to the CPR president, the company has shortlisted the sites which would best suit its planned operations in Montego Bay and negotiations are still going on with the owners. "We also have been exploring the idea of establishing our operations adjacent to the Montego Bay port, but so far no decision has been taken on the best location for the recycling plant," conceded Mr. Corrigan. He was responding to questions from The Gleaner via telephone from his New York operations.
But there is yet another hitch concerning the Montego Bay port, which could impact negatively on the expansion plans of that paper recycling entity. "It doesn't have the capacity that the Kingston port has. It cannot accommodate the container sizes that we need," said Mr. Corrigan.
However, the company says despite the glitches, it is confident that by next month, it will be able to start recycling operations in western Jamaica.
The company has decided that during March it will go the route of collecting paper and taking it to 'satellite bale sites' in Montego Bay. It will then truck the product to Kingston before shipping overseas. This is an interim arrangement until the recycling plant is established.
The company says that within 30 days, it will be bringing into the island bale machines for several hotels in Montego Bay. This will allow the hotels to separate and bale their waste. Some hotels will serve as satellite bale sites.
So far seven satellite bale sites have been identified in Montego Bay.
PLANS STILL UNDER WAY
In the meantime, both the United States-owned CPR and the Jamaican-owned Garbage Disposal and Sanitation Systems (GDSS) which are collaborating on the project, are giving the assurance that a recent fire at the Kingston offices of CPR will not cause a major setback to moves to establish the Montego Bay plant.
The company incurred losses in excess of $1 million due to the fire two weeks ago at its Spanish Town Road offices. Some of the company's electrical wiring, storage space and stock of processed paper went up in flames. This forced a shutdown of the plant for 10 days.
The Montego Bay recycling facility which will cost over US$1 million to get off the ground, will initially process 300 tonnes of cardboard, newspaper and assorted office paper per month. The material will be shipped overseas to be converted to new paper products. According to the project initiators CPR and GDSS, the recycling plant will provide direct and indirect employment for some 75 persons.
