The RePLAST‒OECS Pilot Plastic Recycling Project launched in May 2019, is a two-year public-private initiative, being implemented by UNITE Caribbean and is aimed at setting-up an incentivized plastic waste collection and recycling scheme.

The plastic collected will be exported to a recycling plant in the Caribbean, promoting a circular economy model. The first pilot country is Saint Lucia with subsequent replication in the OECS countries.

Unite Caribbean, the consultants charged with piloting a plastic bottle collection drive in Grenada during summer 2022, was pleased with the response of Grenadians to the initiative which yielded approximately seven thousand pounds of plastic beverage bottles over a six-week period.

Mr. Ronald Roach, Consultant, speaking at a workshop which presented the outcome of the initiative, stated that his company is encouraged by the response of Grenadians to the project which it is hoped will be implemented on a wider scale in the near future. He stated that a perspective exporter will be required to accumulate approximately twenty thousand pounds of plastic bottles to make a shipment. Given the short time span in which 7000lbs was collected, he believes that with the given import data of plastic beverages into Grenada, a recycling company can make collections and shipments a lucrative investment. He noted that if incentives/rewards are offered to participants to return plastic beverage bottles to similar operations, Grenada will see an end to the challenges associated with the improper disposal of plastic beverage bottles including public health issues and marine pollution. GSWMA has seen the number of interests in plastic recycling grow in recent years as the country battles the problem of increased plastics in the waste stream.