It was ten years ago, in 2014, when I took a boat tour with the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) around Kingston Harbour, ahead of the organisation’s annual International Beach Cleanup Day event. It was a humid summer’s day on the water, and all the smells (unfortunately) of the harbour water reached us at Rae Town Fishing Village. We then turned towards the mangroves fringing the Palisadoes strip of land between Kingston and the airport (a Ramsar site – a Wetland of International Importance), and found Refuge Cay.
I was quite stunned. It was an island of plastic – several layers of it. I wrote at the time:
We circled Refuge Cay, which is covered with mangroves and is a breeding and roosting spot for sea birds such as the Brown Pelican and Magnificent Frigate Bird. It is also carpeted with garbage. On one side of the small cay, the garbage (a large plastic laundry basket, yards and yards of plastic bottles and plastic bags) chokes the mangroves. The tap roots cannot grow down. Marine life cannot breed there. On the other side – which does not receive the wave of garbage moving across the harbor from the gullies – the mangrove looks fairly healthy. We spotted pelicans perched in the bright green foliage like statues. Roosting areas were white with bird droppings.
Petchary’s Blog, August 22, 2014
Recently, JET organised a second cleanup of the Cay, with an army of volunteers from Kingston and nearby Port Royal, and collected a huge amount of mainly plastic waste – large items too. And yet they still felt this was the tip of the iceberg (not many icebergs in our neck of the woods, but you know what I mean). They were scraping the surface of the terrifying volume of plastic pollution that has a grip on our beautiful island. Here was their experience, vividly described by JET’s CEO Dr. Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie:
JET leads second cleanup of Refuge Cay, urges urgent action on plastic pollution
On Saturday, February 24, 2024, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) conducted its second cleanup of Refuge Cay, which marked a continuation of their efforts following an earlier cleanup in October 2023. Supported by 76 volunteers from Port Royal and the University of the West Indies Port Royal Marine Lab, the group removed 15,603 pounds of garbage, including refrigerators, toilets and tyres. The cleanups were done as part of a project being funded by the UNDP implemented Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP) with additional funding from TeamSeas.
Refuge Cay stands as one of the few isolated mangrove islands within Kingston Harbour in the Palisadoes Port Royal Protected Area. It experiences a relentless accumulation of garbage, primarily plastics. This accumulation poses a significant threat to the diverse bird species dependent on the mangrove trees for roosting and nesting. In 2018, with support from the Kingston Freeport Terminal Ltd, the UWI Port Royal Marine Lab spearheaded an extensive cleanup effort over six weeks with assistance from the Port Royal fishers, removing over 9,000 bags of garbage estimating at least 180,000 pounds and over 60 refrigerators.
Reflecting on the cleanups Dr. Rodriguez-Moodie, CEO of JET said:
“The volume of garbage, which was predominantly plastics, was staggering. As we walked through the mangroves, all we could hear was the loud crunch of plastic. Nearly two feet of debris had to be cleared before the mangrove roots and soil were visible. Large items such as fridges, toilets and stoves were removed. Microplastics, comprising small foam pieces and other broken pieces of plastic, were entwined within the soil or floating in the nearby coastal waters. These cleanup initiatives underscore the urgent need to reduce our use and reliance on plastics and improve our waste management practices.”
Dr. Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, Jamaica Environment Trust
Given the site’s delicate ecosystem, accommodating large numbers of volunteers remains challenging. Justin Saunders, Programme Director at JET, noted:
“Despite the considerable amount of garbage removed, there likely remains at least ten times as much, if not more, yet to be cleaned up. Regular cleanups are imperative to restore the island’s condition. Regrettably, previous attempts to safeguard the island with waste barriers faltered due to theft of their anchors.”
Justin Saunders, Jamaica Environment Trust
Dr. Rodriguez-Moodie, CEO of JET said, “We know the solutions to Jamaica’s solid waste crisis but we must demonstrate our dedication to environmental preservation by implementing them.”
JET is actively seeking support from the private sector and government to sustain future cleanups of the island. Additionally, JET stresses the critical importance of developing and implementing a comprehensive solid waste management policy to effectively address Jamaica’s plastic problem. Such a policy should embody the principles of a ‘circular economy’, incorporating strategies for sustainable financing, waste minimization, and fostering behavioural change.
JET’s full report “A review of the solid waste management policy and recommendations” can be found here: A review of the solid waste management policy and recommendations – Jamaica Environment Trust (jamentrust.org).
On a more positive note, I would suggest that Kingston Harbour might well be quite a bit cleaner than it was ten years ago (apart from the nightmare that is Refuge Cay, which does not look any better to be sure). With the efforts of The Ocean Cleanup, which has now deployed seven of its “Interceptors” at the mouths of major gullies draining into the Harbour; the accompanying work of the GraceKennedy Foundation in partnership with Clean Harbours Jamaica in surrounding communities; and the stepped-up capacity of Recycling Partners of Jamaica to collect and process even more plastic bottles… all is by no means lost.
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