Published on 23 July 2014 by Cuba News
Cuba prioritizes actions to develop its recycling industry through the purchase of modern technology, the study of its potentials and the adoption of new legislation in the sector.
In tune with a new recycling policy adopted in 2012 by the Cuban Council of Ministers the performance of the sector is being reviewed and will be complemented with a new recycling law, currently in the works, plus the setting of prices that encourage the collection and recovery of recycling materials.
The new policy stipulates the development of industrial processing through the introduction of new technology and of course encouragement of foreign investment in the sector.
According to the general vice-director of the Cuban Recycling Industry Marilyn Ramos, actions have thus far included the study of the country's potential output of recycling materials, the installed capacity for industrial processing and the opportunities that the sector can offer foreign investors to create new recycling capacities.
The plan includes the purchase of new equipment to disassemble large and idle industrial facilities that possess large volumes of metal scrap; important enough is an investment in a local ship disassembling plant in western Cuba, aimed at increasing capabilities and work on all boats abandoned along Cuban coasts.
Actions also aim at setting up a new recycling plant of plastic materials in the central-southern province of Cienfuegos.
However, the sector reported the recycling of over 420 thousand tons of materials in 2013 , which translated into the saving of 220 million dollars, if the country had to import such raw materials, officials said.
And as part of ongoing initiatives aimed at improving the recycling sector, three cooperatives are already operating in the field, in the provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque, in the west, and in Camaguey, in the east of the country.
The new non-state working modalities report favorable performance and to a large extent this is due to its operational scheme, since once they meet their commitment to the state, they can commercialize their recyclable output to third parties or even the self-employment sector. This obviously benefits the income of the cooperative and tis workers.
For instance, Orlando Falgueiras, who heads the cooperative operating in Artemisa said that his entity is scheduled to contribute the state with little over 3 thousand tons of raw material, which they were able to meet with an extra amount of it.
This year the cooperative expects to contribute five thousand tons of recycled materials from solid wastes, he noted.
The non-state modality will be expanded to another 12 Cuban territories soon after it has been considered viable and positive for the sector, said the general director of the Recycling Industry, Jorge Luis Tamayo.
Cuba is looking forwards to replacing costly imports with local productions and recycling is crucial activity to achieve this goal, this is why authorities have prioritized this effort which must be backed by a local culture to boost the recovery of important resources that have not been taken advantage of for the past years.
And last but not least, the population's actions in this are vital if citizens from their very homes, aware of the importance of recycling, are able to classify solid wastes and not mix them with others in order to facilitate their collection for processing. These issues are now being new subjects event taught at Cuban schools in an effort to raise an economic and environment friendly culture in the Cuban people.