PEDRO GONZALEZ ISLAND | PEDRO GONZALEZ ISLAND

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Solid Waste Master Plan: Pedro Gonzalez Island, Panama

Aerial

This past year, Norton Engineering has been working with an international developer to develop Pedro Gonzalez Island, a territory of Panama. This island is being transformed from a desolate land with a couple of simple old villages to a first class luxury resort.

The object of the development is to upgrade the living situations of the current population while maintaining the natural landscape of the island, and to bring in income from tourism by taking advantage of the isolated, tropical location.

Village

Norton Engineering joined the team as the solid waste consultants. The developers are very environmentally conscious and it has been our job to come up with the solid waste disposal plan for the entire island.

We broke the solid waste plan into 3 phases, briefly described below:

Phase 1 - Cleaning up existing Conditions:

Trash Pit

The existing solid waste disposal methods on the island were primitive. Garbage, for the most part was just thrown into piles in the bush, or even the beaches.

Often, when the garbage piles became large enough, they were lit on fire. This uncontrolled, open pit burning method is probably the least environmentally sound way to dispose of garbage, so we knew this would be the first issue to be corrected. Our cleanup plan consisted of several steps:

Burn Pit

Supplying waste containers of assorted colors for separation of green waste, recyclables, cleanly combustible waste, and hardfill (inert landfill) waste.
Educating the Villagers on proper waste disposal methods.
Hiring a few of the villagers to serve as garbage collectors and managers.
Installing a small incinerator with an air pollution control system to safely deal with the combustible wastes.

Phase 2 - Managing Waste During Construction:

When the island begins construction of new hotels, homes, marinas, etc., the largest percentage of garbage will be construction debris. Much of this material can be used constructively as construction fill, recycled and sold, or safely burned, but it has to be collected, separated, and most likely broken down first. Also, during the construction period, more and more residents and workers will be moving in; they will be increasing the amount of typical trash as well. Early in the construction phase the solid waste program will be implemented. Solid waste facilities will be built for separation, composting, and incineration. Collection vehicles will be brought it. Mechanical equipment will be brought in as the island population grows.

The construction phase will provide a good training period to for the new staff to get accustomed to the program, use the equipment, and to get a better idea of what else is needed or not needed, so that when the resort opens to its guests, the garbage operation should be working flawlessly and discretely (the less people see or think about garbage while on vacation, the better).

Phase 3 - Permanent Operation:

When the island is built up, the waste generated on the island will be disposed of in the following ways:

Composting:
Much of the waste generated on the island will be green waste (capable of simple composting). Green waste will be collected in its own containers outside the villages and hotels and checked at the separation facility. It will be hauled to the compost building and spread into windrows. Windrows will be turned with an aerating trailer pulled by a common farm tractor. The compost product can then be used for mulch or fill dirt. Composting will be done in a new fabric structure with translucent walls and a rigid frame.

Waste Facility

Incineration with Energy Recovery:
Since it is very expensive to ship waste back to the mainland (both environmentally and economically), it is best to dispose of as much waste as possible on the island. Most of the garbage that cannot be composted will be burned in modern incinerators. These incinerators will have pollution control devices making the combustion process cleaner than the landfilling alternative. Also, given the high value of electricity on the island, a boiler and turbine generator will be used with the incinerators to produce electricity from the process. The electricity produced per year will have a value between $350,000 and $500,000; enough to recover capital costs and pay the entire staff needed to run the system.

Recycling:
High Value materials (aluminum cans and steel) will be saved and shipped back to the mainland from time to time for recycling with the regular delivery barges. The barges will be empty after making their deliveries anyway, so it won't be necessary to order a special trip to the mainland.

Hardfilling:
Construction debris, glass, and plastics that shouldn't get incinerated can be used as construction fill. A shear shredder is planned to break down the materials into desirable size gradations.

Minimal shipping of waste back to the Panama City Landfill:
Some materials cannot be disposed of by any of the above methods (such as appliances), so there will be a need to landfill some of the waste from the island. These wastes will be collected at the solid waste facility and shipped back to the mainland from time to time.