The Commonwealth of The Bahamas operates government
infrastructure for solid waste management on some 28 different
islands across the archipelago, mostly in the form of local dumps.
New Providence, the most populous island and location of the capital
city of Nassau, has the most people (about 249,000 in the 2010
census; Table 1), and most tourism activity in the form of hotels,
resorts and cruise ship stop-overs. The island of New Providence
has the volume of solid waste that could be economically feasible
to be recycled or incinerated with waste to energy technologies
(Skordilis, 2004). The greater challenge comes with less-populated
islands like Exuma that rely on tourism, butlack the scale and infrastructure
for integrated solid waste management. Other islands,
such as Grand Bahama, Great Abaco and Eleuthera are all experiencing
growthintourismwithno solid waste infrastructure beyond
open dumps. Exuma is the largest island in the Exuma island chain,
with 7314 residents living on the island in six major settlements
(Table 1).