The Good Garbage: Waste to Water in the Small Island...

“The Good Garbage”: Waste to Water in theSmall Island Environment of St. Barth�elemy

byRussell Fielding

Photographs by Russell Fielding and Diane Fielding

Introduction

Throughout the world, small islandsthat are not immediately adjacent to largerlandmasses experience several commonproblems related to infrastructure andpublic services. Aspects of the physicalgeographies of these islands—especiallytheir insularity and remoteness—requirethat a variety of infrastructural systems bedesigned to operate independently of lar-ger grids and to fit within a small scale.Among many others, specific challengesexist in the areas of energy production,waste disposal, and water supply.

Energy Production

According to the International Scien-tific Council for Island Development(ISCID), small islands are ideal sites forthe testing and refining of sustainableenergy production systems:

The traditional limitations in the energyfield like distance from the major grids,small scale, distribution difficulties andthe lack of large conventional markets,are more than offset by the extremeabundance of renewable energysources… in island regions. In fact, wewould go as far as to say that islandshave become genuine laboratories ofthe future of energy sustainability.

(Mar�ın 2004, 2)

While the ISCID’s optimism is well-received in academic settings, where the“island as laboratory” concept has takenmuch purchase since at least the earliestdays of biogeographical study (Sauer1969), many island governments andenergy industries remain unconvinced, asnoted by Notton and colleagues (2011,652): “Thus, the most usable power plantfor small islands is diesel engines.” This

trend may be on the cusp of changing,however, as fossil fuel costs continue toincrease and both islanders and touristsdemand more sustainable solutions.

Waste Disposal

An island’s ability to handle itsmunicipal and industrial waste is directlyrelated to the size of its physical landarea and its population. On islands withextreme population density, such as Man-hattan, the export of trash is the onlyoption. Larger or more sparsely popu-lated islands may relegate some of theirland area to landfills. Incineration is alsowidely practiced—both as a centralizedactivity and on the household scale.Issues of air pollution are well docu-mented with regard to incineration. Onemajor argument against the implementa-tion of sustainable waste managementsolutions has been that landfills are rela-tively cheap and abundant in mainlandsettings and on large islands such asGreat Britain (Read, et al. 1998). How-ever, this line of reasoning applies less insmall island contexts. Islands, by virtueof their naturally limited land area, haveadded incentive to develop efficientmethods of waste disposal.

Seawater Desalination

Small oceanic islands—especiallythose without significant surface water orgroundwater reserves—often experiencethe plight of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner:“Water, water everywhere/Nor any dropto drink.” People living on small, dryislands often rely on rainwater catchmentas their primary source of freshwater. Thissystem involves the inherent risk of reli-ance upon the weather for sustenance andleaves little recourse during droughts andregular dry seasons except for rationing,

doing without, or importing fresh water.Climate change further exacerbates thisuncertainty. Desalination is an effectiveoption on some islands, but many moreare unable to provide enough waterthrough this process, owing to the inherentexpense—both financial and in terms ofenergy consumption. Eric Swyngedouw(2013) has recently highlighted the atten-dant politico-social issues that can sur-round the development of desalinationfacilities in mainland settings and there isno reason one should not apply, and evenamplify, his findings in island contexts aswell.

Synthesis on St. Barth�elemy

Several islands throughout theworld’s oceans have endeavored toresolve these challenges through techno-logical development and investment. Thekey to such solutions often is oftenfound in the combination of efforts andintegration of technologies in order tosolve multiple infrastructural goals atonce. One salient example of such inte-grated technologies is the case of thewaste-to-energy (WTE) facilities, as dis-cussed in the context of small islands byRodr�ıguez (2011). While many varietiesof WTE facilities exist, most involve thecapture and redirection of thermalenergy released from the incineration ofmunicipal and/or industrial waste. Thisenergy is then used to perform worksuch as the production of electricity ordesalination of seawater. Scrubbersremove pollutants from the exhaustsmoke of WTEs, with varying degrees ofsuccess. Owing to their efficiency andability to address multiple sustainabilityissues, WTE facilities are often seen asbeing ideal to small island settings.While they may be ideally suited, WTEfacilities are still expensive, requiring

Spring 2014 Focus on Geography 1

large initial investments. Wealthy islands,or those with political ties to wealthynations, are often in the best position toinvest in WTE facilities and other sus-tainable technologies.

Such is the case in St. Barth�elemy. Asan overseas collectivity (collectivit�e d’outre-mer) of France, St. Barth�elemy benefitsfrom the cultural, political, and economicties with the mother country. Additionally,the island’s niche focus on luxury tourism(Figure 1) brings foreign capital into St.Barth�elemy (Figure 2) at a pace unrivaledby most of the island’s Caribbean neigh-bors (Cousin and Chauvin 2013). Indeed,the local government of St. Barth�elemy hasrecognized its peculiar position within theregion and the opportunities presented toserve as an example of sustainable devel-opment to the rest of the insular Carib-bean, as evidenced by the government’sinvestment in WTE facilities. Currently, acombined WTE facility is in operation out-side of St. Barth�elemy’s capital, Gustavia,providing thermal energy to the island’sseawater desalination plant and offsettingthat normally energy-intensive industry’selectricity demand.

The Setting: History of an Island

St. Barth�elemy (also called St. Barth orSt. Bart’s) is a small island of about23 km2, located in the Leeward Islands ofthe Lesser Antilles (Figure 3). It wassighted by Columbus on his second voy-age and named for the navigator’s brother,Bartolomeo. Prior to European discovery,St. Barth had been known as Oualanao bythe Carib people who, owing to theisland’s lack of fresh water, visited occa-sionally but made no permanent settle-ments. This reason for the lack ofpermanent indigenous settlement shouldhave served as foreshadowing for thecoming colonialists.

The island was colonized by theFrench in the mid-17th century, ceded toSweden in 1784 in exchange for free trad-ing rights in the port of G€oteborg, andkept as Sweden’s only Caribbean territoryuntil 1878 when it was returned to France.In St. Barth today, one sees multiple refer-ences to the near-century of Swedish asso-ciation, including the blue flag with ayellow Scandinavian cross, which fliesfrom many of the island’s flagpoles

(Figure 4). Printed text in some public andprivate establishments is translated intoEnglish, for the tourists, but also intoSwedish, as a nod to the island’s history.Many street signs in Gustavia present theFrench name as well as the Swedish. Gus-tavia is paired with Pitea, in Sweden, as itssister city.

St. Barth remained a poor colonyfor the first half of the twentieth cen-tury, isolated without an airport untilthe late R�emy de Haenen—one of theisland’s most celebrated residents—cleared an airstrip (Figure 5) that todayremains one of the shortest and mostdifficult landings in the world (Figure 6).During the 1950s, St. Barth was “discov-ered” by American celebrities and mil-lionaires. Some wealthy familiesestablished their presence more perma-nently: the Rockefellers built a largehouse on the island’s west end, nearColombier, and the Rothschilds did thesame on the east coast, by Grand Cul-de-Sac. The infrastructure began to catchup: electricity came in 1962 during deHaenen’s tenure as the island’s mayor.However, fresh water was still a

Figure 1. The Eden Rock Hotel, a luxury resort on St. Barth

2 Focus on Geography Volume 57, Number 1

problem. Each home relied on its owncistern, with two larger reservoirs onhigh points at either end of the island.

During the following decades, moredevelopment gradually transformed St.Barth from a small, dry island, known

for its duty-free port, fishing, and saltponds, to a small, dry island, knownfor its luxury tourism.

Figure 2. Yachts lie moored in and outside of Gustavia harbor.

Figure 3. Map of St. Barth�elemy.


Consume and Discard

With a 2011 population of 9,057 (Cotis2011), and visitors numbering in the tens

of thousands annually, the infrastructuredemands on St. Barth are considerable,especially during the winter tourist season.During that high season, cars and motor

scooters choke the island’s steep, narrowstreets and parking spaces along theboardwalk in Gustavia become as sought-after as the quayside berths where the

Figure 4. Flags representing (L-R) the European Union, the island of St. Barth, France, and Sweden fly in front of the main government buildingin Gustavia.

Figure 5. The St. Barth airport and the nearby villages of Lorient (left) and Saint-Jean (right).


multi-million dollar yachts are docked(Figure 7).

Owing to its negligible agriculturaland manufacturing outputs, St. Barthimports nearly everything that its resi-dents and visitors consume. The high-end, luxury niche market targeted by thetourism sector has led to what oneresearch team has identified as “competi-tive consumption” (Cousin and Chauvin2013, 191). These researchers describelate-night revelries in which businessmagnates, celebrities, and other super-richattempt to out-spend and out-consumeone another, rewarded with exclusive—yet highly visible—seating in the island’sgathering places where they may con-sume imported beverages costing thou-sands of dollars per bottle.

The packaging and other detritusassociated with these commodities iscollected at the island’s waste disposalplant, located just outside Gustavia in

Figure 6. Planes must approach very close to the top of a hill in order to land on St. Barth.

Figure 7. Yachts in Gustavia harbor.


what some maps identify as the Zone In-dustrielle. This area, fronted by the villageof Public, is home to the commercial port,where vessels not bearing tourists loadand unload their wares. Here, enormouspiles of solid waste are sorted into essen-tially three categories: that which can beburned, that which must be sent off-island,and that which can be repurposed.

This industrial zone features none ofthe sights and smells of the rest of theisland. Decomposing organic trashreplaces the scent of frangipani, bougain-villea, and fresh-baked pains au chocolatewhile separated piles of crushed glass,cubed aluminum, non-working appli-ances, and general trash stand in starkrelief to the raked beach sand, quaint vil-las, and landscaped gardens of the St.Barth seen by most visitors (Figure 8).Though the site may remain unseen bymost, everyone on St. Barth—residentsand visitors alike—experiences its effects.

Each day, a careful sorting processunfolds in which industrial and munici-pal solid waste is brought to the facility,sorted into categories, and processed. Thesorting has, in theory, begun in the homeor at the public trash receptacle. Anisland-wide information campaign pro-vides instructional fliers to residents andplacards that urge tourists, in English, toput waste “in the good garbage,” inorder to facilitate the sorting process thathappens at the incinerator site (Figure 9).

When the waste is sorted, the first cat-egory includes items that can be recycled,but not on the island. At the incineratorsite, in the spaces allotted for the appli-ances, batteries, aluminum cans, and steel,stand neat stacks of similar things, allsorted under signs bearing their designa-tions—here only in French, as there is noneed to translate to English and certainlynot into Swedish (Figure 10). Vegetable-based oils and petroleum products stand

in separate vats. All of this waste will beshipped to various ports—Guadeloupe,Miami, France—where it will be recycledor turned into scrap.

The second category is made upalmost entirely of glass, as this is the oneform of waste that can be repurposedlocally on St. Barth. After being separatedby hand from all other forms of waste,glass is crushed into a fine powder forindustrial use (Figure 11). Those whose jobit is to sort the glass spend their shifts—heavily gloved—pulling corks from emptywine bottles, twisting off caps from expen-sive eaux min�erales, and shaking burned-out sparklers from expensive bottles ofchampagne (Cousin and Chauvin 2013).This glass powder will later provide insu-lation for water pipes and electrical con-duit running under the island’s roads andsidewalks.

Finally there is the combustiblewaste. All vegetal trimmings, paper

Figure 8. Unsorted municipal solid waste piled outside the incinerator.


products, and other organics, as well asmost plastics are piled as fuel for theisland’s incinerator (Figure 12). One dayof drying under the tropic sun is usuallysufficient preparation for the combusti-bles (Figure 13). Once dried, the fuel islifted into a chute where it feeds a con-stantly burning flame (Figure 14). Theincinerator needs at least twenty-five met-ric tons of material per day to maintainits optimal burn rate. Thirty-five is better.Fifty is the maximum. The island just pro-duces enough material to make incinera-tion sensible. During the slow season ofsummer, when jet-setting tourists aremore likely to be found in the Mediterra-

nean than the Caribbean, the incineratoroccasionally shuts down, owing to a lackof fuel. When the flame goes out, it cantake days to return the operation to itsoptimal temperature.

A closed-loop system for evaporationand condensation of water is connectedto the incinerator. Once water is heatedby the combustion of waste, steam is sentto the nearby desalination plant, whereits thermal energy is used in the produc-tion of fresh water. During the low sea-son, the steam alone provides enoughenergy for the production of freshwaterthrough evaporation. When demand ishigh, an electricity-powered reverse

osmosis process is added. Imported dieselserves as the fuel for the generation ofelectricity.

Critics of waste incineration oftenfocus on the air pollution inherent in theprocess. The incinerator on St. Barth cer-tainly introduces chemicals and particu-lates to the atmosphere, though scrubbingprocesses are in place to at least limit both.Further independent research is needed toquantify these pollutants. This lacuna rep-resents a remarkable opportunity for anatmospheric chemist to conduct seriousand necessary research in a breathtakinglybeautiful setting. However, when evaluat-ing the costs and benefits of a system suchas this, it is important to consider the pro-cesses that are being replaced. In the caseof waste management on St. Barth, theincinerator largely replaces two methodsof waste disposal that were common onthe island before its introduction. Accord-ing to long-time residents Alexandra Def-fontis and Bruno Magras (pers. comm.),most residents either burned householdwaste at home or simply dumped itdirectly into the sea. Each of these infor-mants now plays a direct role in thewaste-to-energy program on St. Barth.

Magras, a St. Barth native and nowthe island’s political leader (“Pr�esident dela Collectivit�e d’Outre-Mer de Saint-Barth�el-emy”), reflects on the gravity of his posi-tion: “I’m concerned about my island, myfuture, my kids’ future. I’m not out todestroy what I received.” While the build-ing of the current WTE incinerator in2002 was based on a decision by theFrench government, Magras takes creditfor the island’s original municipal inciner-ator, built in 1979. This first incineratordid not produce electricity or energy fordesalination, but it did serve to centralizewaste disposal and offered an alternativeto the then-current practices of waste dis-posal—the aforementioned household-level burning or nearshore dumping.Magras’ approach to renewable energyproduction is nuanced, however. He isagainst wind power—the large, offshoreturbines would be “too ugly;” againstlarge scale solar energy—open land is tooscarce; and against a proposed cable sup-plying power from nearby St. Martin—aplan that would increase the island’sdependence as well as its vulnerability tohurricanes. Magras does support the cap-ture of solar energy at the householdlevel; however he worries that installationof photovoltaic cells atop the famous redtile roofs of Gustavia would reduce apopular aesthetic.

Figure 9. A sign urging the public to sort trash before discarding.


Deffontis, another St. Barth native,now works as an official at the incinerator(her title: “Directeur du Service de Pro-pret�e”) and praises its effectiveness indealing with the “biggest problem” facedby the island during the high tourist sea-son: the availability of fresh water.According to Deffontis (pers. comm.),hotels and rental villas are given priorityin the distribution of municipal water.Prior to desalination, when rainwatercatchment was the primary source of theisland’s freshwater, households wouldcarefully measure the reserves in theirdwindling private cisterns as wealthytourists lounged by “infinity pools” anddeckhands washed their employers’yachts along the quay. Today water ismore readily available, but only inasmuchas combustible trash is produced on theisland. As shall be examined below,several challenges exist that threaten todisrupt this precarious system.

Challenges

While the incinerator does appear tohave achieved a form of equilibriumwithin the environment and society of St.Barth, the system is not without chal-lenges. Here I discuss three of issuesrelated to the effectiveness of the incinera-tor that are most commonly mentioned onthe island.

Hurricanes

Located within the Leeward Islands ofthe Lesser Antilles, St. Barth often findsitself in the path of Atlantic tropicalcyclones. The most recent major storms tomake landfall on St. Barth were HurricaneOmar in October of 2008 and HurricaneEarl in August of 2010. The French authori-ties on St. Barth use the color-based Frenchtropical cyclone scale as opposed to the Saf-fir-Simpson Scale used throughout much of

the English-speaking Caribbean and NorthAmerica. This Tableau des Alertes Cyclo-niques, developed by M�et�eo-France (2013)originally for use in the southern IndianOcean to monitor storms near La Reunion,ranks tropical cyclones by color, based onaverage wind speed over a ten-minuteinterval. During less-powerful storms (yel-low and orange), the incinerator is able tomaintain operation. During larger hurri-canes (red), it must stop.

Lack of Compliance

When the incinerator began operationin 2001, islanders were asked to beginsorting their trash at home. Prior to thattime, no sorting had been necessary, asthere were only two streams of waste dis-posal: into the landowner’s onsite burnpile or directly into the sea. When thesorting regimen began—and still to thisday, in some cases—some residents

Figure 10. Discarded appliances are stacked, waiting to be shipped off-island for recycling.


refused to participate. Trash collectorswould find metals and plastics in the binsmeant to contain only organic waste orthey would find all of a household’swaste combined in the same receptacle.These small acts of civil disobediencewere interpreted as statements against theregulation of waste disposal and the con-tinued modernization of the island. How-ever the lack of compliance continuallypuzzles the incinerator’s management,especially considering the multiple grass-roots environmental protection campaignsthat St. Barth has seen, for example, thehomemade cigarette disposal stationsinstalled at many of the island’s beaches(Figure 15).

The government responded to the pub-lic’s failure to thoroughly sort householdwaste by streamlining the waste manage-ment system and marketing the new sys-tem through bilingual fliers and placards(Figure 16). The new campaign features a

stylized pelican—reminiscent of the birdson either side of the official seal of St.Barth�elemy—reminding residents thatthey need to manage “ONLY 2 TRASH

BAGS!” (“2 POUBELLES SUFFISENT!”). One bagis for combustibles and the other is forrecyclables. This campaign has met withvarying success but continues to placereceptacles in visible public areas and todistribute instructional, bilingual literaturethat stresses the ease and importance ofseparating household trash. While someparallel English slogans are found on theliterature, only the French side proclaimsthat “Trier c’est Gagner!! S’abstenir c’est de-truire!!” (“Sorting is winning!! Refrainingis destroying!!”).

Composting

Currently, the government of St. Barthis in the process of establishing an island-wide composting program. While compo-

sting is usually seen as an environmentallybeneficial activity, incinerator managersworry that the program will divert com-bustible organic material away from theincinerator and that they may not continueto receive enough fuel to keep the opera-tion going efficiently. At present, the incin-eration is occasionally halted during theslow summer season for want of fuel. Theestablishment of a new waste managementstream may divert enough material awayfrom the incinerator to make its operationinefficient at best, impossible at worst.

Further, with little agriculturebeyond household gardens, it is unclearwhat the ultimate use of the compostwill be. Certainly the “kitchen garden”has a long history of relevance to house-hold self-sufficiency in the Caribbean(Kimber 1966; Richardson 1983; Fieldingand Mathewson 2013); however, with itsdry climate and rocky soils, St. Barth hasnot traditionally supported small-scale

Figure 11. Aluminum cans (left) and ground glass powder (right).


agriculture at the level of some of itsCaribbean neighbors.

Still, in March 2013, the governmentacquired a piece of land adjacent to theincinerator that is to be used for compo-sting. At present, when the compostingprogram will begin, how it will bereceived, and what its results will beremain unknowns.

Discussion and Conclusions

The lessons learned from St. Barth�el-emy help to show that the insularCaribbean is a dynamic region, full ofdiverse cultures and real-world sustainabil-ity crises—not merely a place where carefreeholidays are spent. Though, like manypracticed tourism-based economies, St. Barthhas effectively addressed these crises in thebackground, providing water and wastedisposal virtually out-of-sight to its visitors.The section of the island where thewaste-incineration powers water-generation,Figure 12. A worker observes operations inside the incinerator facility.

Figure 13. Combustible waste drying and being moved.


ironically named Public, is the least-visitedby the public. A high road bypasses thearea, connecting Gustavia with the airportand the beaches of St. Jean. Quietly indus-trial, Public privately provides for the trulypublic areas of the island. Still, from thecenter of the incinerator’s courtyard, withtriaged recyclables stacked to one side andan enormous mountain of combustiblespiled in front, it is possible to look past thewaste and glimpse the electric blue waterof the Caribbean Sea. Somewhere underthat bright surface lies an intake valve,where seawater is pumped onshore to bemade fresh, in a process fueled by the burn-ing of champagne corks and trimmings ofbougainvillea.

St. Barth is mountainous but small.Clouds created by orographic lifting areoften carried west by the trade winds,beyond the island’s shore, their precipita-tion falling uselessly upon the surface ofthe Caribbean Sea. Even today, whenfreshwater can be made, rain falling on theroofs of St. Barth is still seen as a godsend.The author recalls ducking into a tiny

Figure 14. A worker inspects the flame inside the incinerator facility.

Figure 15. A homemade cigarette-disposal site at a beach on St. Barth.


jewelry shop called Bijoux de la Mer, “Jew-els of the Sea,” during a rare cloudburst inGustavia. The tourists in the shop waitedout the shower by trying on expensiveTahitian pearls, but the shopkeepers—members of an old St. Barth family—stepped out into the rain, hands raised,whispering “merci” for the gift of freshwa-ter. The raindrops falling on the roof mayhave seemed to them more precious thanthe pearls being sold inside, but the mostvaluable commodity from the sea wasbeing produced just over a small hill,through the unglamorous but indispensi-ble process of waste-powered desalination.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my wife, Diane Field-ing, for providing the beautiful photo-graphs that accompany this paper. (Thenot-so-beautiful photos of trash heaps andthe incinerator site are my own.) Additionalthanks to my local informants on St. Barth:H�el�ene Bernier, Alexandra Deffontis, Jean-

Philippe Piter, and Christophe Turb�e. Spe-cial thanks to Pr�esident Bruno Magras fortaking time out of his busy, island-runningschedule to meet with a visiting geogra-pher. Maria Elena Diaz, of Columbia Uni-versity, and Don Hurd, of Alpine Energy inDenver, both provided important back-ground information on waste-to-energyfacilities. Finally, special thanks are due tothe Office of Internationalization at the Uni-versity of Denver, which provided fundingfor the fieldwork portion of this research.

References

Cotis, Jean-Philippe. 2011. Recensement dela Population. Paris: INSEE.

Cousin, Bruno and S�ebastian Chauvin.2013. Islanders, Immigrants and Million-aires: the Dynamics of Upper-Class Seg-regation in St Barts, French West Indies.In Iain Hay (ed). Geographies of theSuper-Rich. Cheltenham, UK: EdwardElgar Publishing. 186–200.

Fielding, Russell and Kent Mathewson.2012. Queen of the Caribbees: Farmingand Fishing Foci on the Island of Nevis.Focus on Geography 55(4): 132–139.

Kimber, Clarissa. 1966. Dooryard Gardensof Martinique. Yearbook of the Associationof Pacific Coast Geographers 28: 97–118.

Mar�ın, Cipriano. 2004. Towards 100% RESSupply: An Objective for the Islands.International Scientific Council forIsland Development, European IslandOPET.

M�et�eo-France. 2013. Tableau des AlertesCycloniques. Accessed online at: http://www.meteo.fr/temps/domtom/La_Reunion/charte/pics/Alertes/tableau-alerte-cyclonique.html 17 July 2013.

Notton, Gilles, Ludmil Stoyanov, MotazEzzat, Vladimir Lararov, Said Diaf andChristian Cristofari. 2011. IntegrationLimit of Renewable Energy Systems inSmall Electrical Grid. Energy Procedia 6:651–665.

Read, Adam D., Paul Phillips and GuyRobinson. 1998. Landfill as a Future

Figure 16. A bilingual flier urging residents to separate their household waste.


Waste Management Option in England:The View of Landfill Operators. The Geo-graphical Journal 164(1): 55–66.

Richardson, Bonham C. 1983. CaribbeanMigrants: Environment and Human Sur-vival on St. Kitts and Nevis. Knoxville:University of Tennessee Press.

Rodr�ıguez, Mar�ıa Elena D�ıaz Barriga. 2011.Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Waste-to-Energy Plant for Montevideo and Waste-to-Energy in Small Islands. UnpublishedM.S. Thesis. Columbia University.

Sauer, Jonathan D. 1969. Oceanic Islandsand Biogeographical Theory: A

Review.Geographical Review 59(4): 582–593.

Swyngedouw, Eric. 2013. Into the Sea:Desalination as Hydro-Social Fix inSpain. Annals of the Association ofAmerican Geographers 103(2): 261–270.


The Good Garbage: Waste to Water in the Small Island...

Documents

Transcript of The Good Garbage: Waste to Water in the Small Island...