Deputy Opposition Leader Joey Hew’s Statement on The Further Delayed Project ReGen

My Progressive Opposition colleagues and I, along with many Caymanians and residents, are deeply disappointed with the Government’s absolute failure to make meaningful progress with the ReGen Sustainable Waste Management Project.

This lack of progress, as reported in the media, has left the Project Financial Close agreement and the Environmental Impact Assessment process in a state of limbo. A situation that three years of dithering and delay by the PACT/UPM Government have put them in.

This Government’s failure to complete the work on the financial close, having missed the project deadlines time and time again, has significantly increased the project costs for the country and its citizens.  These inexplicable delays have created uncertainty and risk.

The PACT/UPM Government’s term will end in about ten months, and the country will have regressed in providing a sustainable solution to our waste needs and failed to close the current landfill. This inaction could lead to significant environmental and financial consequences. 

ReGen was that sustainable solution, and if completed, it will provide the country with an environmentally friendly waste management system that would vastly reduce landfill needs for many decades. Composting and recycling would increase significantly, and the project will also provide Grand Cayman with sustainable ‘energy from waste’ that would be sold to CUC and help to deliver our energy transition targets.  It would also safely extract the landfill gas trapped in ‘Mount Trashmore’ for electricity production. Landfill gas that now contributes to dangerous fires and leaks into the atmosphere at a rate of about 23,000 tonnes a year is an environmental hazard.

The landfills in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman would be closed, and garbage would be shipped for processing at the ReGen facility in Grand Cayman. Without ReGen, that will not happen.

That sustainable waste solution is within our grasp if the Government can complete the contracting process, but I am increasingly concerned that all the benefits of ReGen are being thrown away.

During the 2023 budget session, Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, the Minister of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency, confirmed that funds were budgeted to cover two years of work on the landfill project. I also understood that the ReGen Financial Close was still in progress.

However, six months later, the ongoing delay in finalising the ReGen project, with the Government saying nothing, is increasingly concerning. 

Meanwhile, the periodic dump fires and the smell from the landfill are constant reminders of the urgency and importance of solving this issue - action is needed now.

As I have often said, Project ReGen is not only the best waste management solution for our Islands but also the single most significant sustainability project currently envisaged by the Government. Its importance cannot be overstated, and we are running out of time to implement it.

Minister Sabrina Turner, who has Ministerial responsibility for the George Town Landfill, confirmed in the House in February that if the Government fails to complete the ReGen waste-to-energy project, the country will have to continue landfilling at a new site. She did not say where this would be — whether in Bodden Town, West Bay, North Side, East End or perhaps another ‘George Town dump’.

Residents across our Islands are rightly concerned that their community may yet be targeted as the site for a new dump.

The Government must come clean and advise the country at the next meeting of Parliament in July on what is happening with the ReGen project and whether any progress will be made before the next election.

If no solution is forthcoming, tell the country where they have identified to begin a new Landfill. What is the expected timeline for developing it, and what is the anticipated cost? How would the disastrous environmental impacts of such a decision be mitigated? What abortive contract costs would have to be written off?

There are more questions than answers because the PACT/UPM Government has continued to fail to complete the ReGen contract and remain silent about its plans for waste management.