There are no Governmental requirements to recycle or sort the
solid waste stream. SEB pays no waste disposal charges, thus waste
disposal costs are tied to the cost of equipment and hauling fees.
The costs of solid waste disposal and management on Exuma can
be broken down into four areas: (a) resort labor costs to collect and
store waste (resort stewarding staff), (b) resort bin and compactor
rental, then waste hauling charges from the commercial Exuma
Waste Management Company,(c) public environmental and health
costs associated with solid waste dumping and disposal, and (d)
public long-term costs of management and mitigation of island
dumps (Fig. 1). Recycling initiatives have to address the labor, hauling,
environmental and long-term management costs of solid waste
production that now largely favor the resorts, with large, unknown
costs assigned to the Government.