PUNTCANA – The Puntacana Group Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank's Innovation Lab (IDB Lab) held their first symposium entitled “The Future of Waste 2023: Organic Waste,” to present strategies for the efficient management of organic waste in tourist areas, reducing costs and minimizing the environmental impact in the Dominican Republic.
The meeting also aimed to present concrete and replicable examples to integrate into the national dialogue on waste management, promoting its valorization and utilization, with the projection of eventually transforming garbage into products and services, according to a statement from the Punta Cana Group.
The activity was staged in the Cocoloba Room of La Cana Golf & Beach Club, at Puntacana Resort & Club; in which the lessons learned and best practices of the Puntacana Group on the search for an integral model of solid waste management were presented.
“The proper management of solid waste has always been a matter of interest and concern for the Puntacana Group. Sustainability and social development are in our company's DNA, which is why we have proudly invested in transforming our Recycling and Incineration Center into a recovery center, with the goal of minimizing the amount of waste we have registered with the regional health authority,” explained Frank Elías Rainieri, President and CEO of the Puntacana Group.
The initiative, the statement explains, aims to have the support of key players from different tourist destinations in the country, representatives of the hotel sector, municipal and central government authorities, as well as entrepreneurs in the waste management sector.
“What has been achieved in this experiment is an example that with small actions, substantial changes can be achieved, and we invite other groups and companies to share their experiences,” highlighted Katharina Falkner Olmeda, representative of the IDB Lab.
The opening remarks were delivered by Frank Elías Rainieri, president and CEO of the Puntacana Group; Katharina Falkner Olmeda, representative of the IDB Lab in the Dominican Republic; and Jake Kheel, vice president of the Puntacana Group Foundation.
The entities involved point out that the comprehensive waste management model they are seeking must include appropriate public infrastructure and technical expertise to prevent the vast majority of waste from ending up in private, public, and even clandestine open-air landfills.
“We are currently missing a great opportunity to transform the garbage problem into a competitive advantage for Punta Cana as a tourist destination. Through the project with IDB Lab, we have created a strategy based on field experiments with new technologies and methods to manage organic waste sustainably,” Kheel stated.
The specialists explained that the tourist resorts and communities in the Punta Cana area generate approximately 250 to 350 tons of solid waste such as plastic, aluminum, glass, paper and organic waste, making it opportune to utilize it to reduce the environmental impact.
The conference “Perspectives and success stories in Latin American countries in waste management” was led by Luis Felipe Dornfeld Braga Culturato, a specialist in Biogas and Waste from the UN for Industrial Development.
Jake Kheel spoke on the topic of “Lessons learned from the model circular economy project for solid waste in tourist areas”.
The public sector's strategy for achieving proper waste management was presented by Armando Paíno Henríquez, executive director of the Public-Private Trust for Integrated Solid Waste Management, and Indhira de Jesús, vice minister of Environmental Management at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, with moderation by Smeldy Ramirez Ruffino of IDB Lab
In addition, topics such as “Biogas: recipes for organic waste and sargassum - results and upcoming plans” were discussed, by Alvin Rodríguez, from APEC University; and specialist Carlos Noel from the company Winnow, with the topic of the use of monitoring technology in reducing costs and environmental impact.
Susanne Leib, environmental manager of the Puntacana Group Foundation, presented the topics on the subject of “Composting with forced aeration: Experiments with organic waste and sargassum”.
