Sustainable Planet Solutions (SPS), with its scalable circular-economy infrastructure platform, will be turning organic and other waste streams into revenue opportunities in Jamaica.

The first two phases will be a US$10 million investment, and SPS expects to be operational by June of next year.  The company will utilise water products to create fertilisers, renewable energy, and reduce Jamaica’s dependence on landfill dumps.

SPS has partnered with Bio-GT Engineering & Sanitation Services, founded and operated by Robert Miller, and SmilOzone Waste Management. 

SPS has acquired a 13-acre property on Davis Penn, which is part of Orange Valley Estates in Trelawny, to serve the north coast’s hotels and tourism businesses, primarily in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.

The aim is for SPS to take the waste streams ( raw material feedstock) from the resorts, agricultural operators, industries and service providers, apply its technologies to convert them into commercial -grade products, whether it be compost, fertilisers or energy. 

In short, SPS is looking for all the waste materials from hotels, attractions, bars and turn that into a waste- to- value proposition via its facility.

Of particular note is SPS’s capabilities of forming biogas, renewable natural gas (RNG)  and electricity. SPS’s water and wastewater treatment technology is impressive, and it can provide potable water solutions, which is vital in light of the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa last year. SPS’s Davis Penn facility in Trelawny will be able to produce 600 tons per month of fertiliser, compost and soil amendments.

The plan is to develop a large-scale waste-to-energy facility at the Davis Penn location.

Discussions will be had to form a pilot in particular with the Government of Jamaica. SPS is currently working with Germany’s Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)  to make the project operational in a timely fashion. 

SPS is looking to establish a zero waste zone across the north coast using state-of-the-art waste management technology. At the core of SPS’s business are two proprietary complementary technology platforms, each capable of operating independently or as a unified circular system.

Speaking with Our Today, the lead principal of Bio-GT gave some background on his company. “ Bio-GT was formed 26 years ago. It began as a sanitation company targeting mainly hotels. We discovered that grease and its disposal were a major problem, so that became a different arm of the business. We morphed into not solely focusing on cleaning kitchens. Originally, we were able to deposit grease in the Water Commission’s facilities, but then they banned us from that in Montego Bay. 

“We ended up buying a 500-acre fish farm, and we placed the grease in lined ponds with the blessing of NEPA. There we dewatered it and sent it to a site in Trelawny where the processing takes place. 

“There are now so many food processing businesses in Jamaica and they all produce a lot of grease. I must say it is not captured and treated in an eco-friendly manner. We are the only NEPA-licensed grease depository on the island, and we have had our license renewed yearly for the last 9 years. We have never had a problem with our renewals.” 

President and Managing Director of SPS  Joe Risk, giving an overview of the mission, added: “ SPS is a platform to take organic waste and convert it to products and value. We have partnered with Bio-GT (the largest collector of resort waste on the north coast) and Smilozone. SPS will take the waste and convert it into fertiliser in Phase I, and in Phase II we will be able to convert that waste into renewable energy in the form of electricity or biogas. We can sell the electricity to the grid and the gas to a company like IGL. We could also use the energy for cold storage.

“We also intend to form a recycling bottling plant, and we can utilise the energy we produce for that facility. Our second site will be in Negril, which will be five acres and will service that area. The two sites will service Jamaica’s north coast.  Can we build a facility in Kingston? Yes, we can. That would be our third facility. We are looking to scale across the island and look at placing plants in other Caribbean countries. 

“SPS will also build a plant to process dunder, which is the discharge from rum distilleries. Here we will partner with the Hussey family’s Hampden Estate Rum.  Bobby Miller of Bio-GT’s trucks will pick up the dunder from Everglades Estates in Dumfries. We will also put up a facility to process sargassum. Jamaica doesn’t have a big problem with sargassum, but it is growing. That will be another product to value-add operation. 

“The site in Trelawny has already been approved by Bobby Miller’s Bio-GT company. We hope that NEPA will therefore fast-track us so we can get on with it. We expect to be operational by June of next year there. 

Phase II  will focus on our energy business, and we expect that to be up and running in 14 months’ time.  Phase I is a US$2.5 million investment while Phase II, a substantially bigger project, is estimated to represent a US$8 million investment. Negril will be an additional US$2.5 million investment. The entire project is being financed by private capital. 

“We are delighted to partner with Smilozone, who are a large collector of resort waste. The company is a recycler of glass. Currently, what they do with the glass is separate it by colour, put it in a 40-foot container and send it to Costa Rica, which makes bottles out of it, which it then sells back to Jamaica. The reason for that is that Jamaica does not have a bottling plant. Why?  Energy costs are just too high in Jamaica. That’s why we at SPS are creating our own energy.”