area malodorous and fly infested. Fig. 3 illustrates the service area
at SEB resort that combined the solid waste accumulation areas
with the loading dock for food and supply deliveries. The design of
this service area, with the unsorted solid waste in an open compactor,
provided an opportunity for rodent and insect pests to
proliferate. The food waste recycling project was aimed at reducing
the open containers of solid waste, reducing the amount of wet,
organic material entering the compactor, and reducing the food
wastes that enters the ERSL. With limited resources to manage the
ERSL, organic wastes created pest issues there as well. The question
addressed was, “Could the benefits of recycling and sorting
solid waste outweigh the convenience and low cost of unsorted
solid waste disposal?”
Recycle Exuma developed a benchmarking plan, and employed
recycling managers for ten months from June, 2012 to April 2013
to document the staff behavior and waste stream patterns. Recycle
Exuma collected quantitative data on the composition of unsorted
waste entering the compactor, and interviewed kitchen staff about
their views on sorting waste. The kitchens were the focus of solid waste issues because of the volume of food waste generated
by the all-inclusive resort events. Benchmarking was initiated
to understand the rate and amount of food waste generated over
the weekly routine in seven kitchens. The hours of operations for
the kitchens were divided into four-hour blocks. Stratified random
sampling was used to select 10 four-hour times from about
5 AM to 10 PM to document the volume of trash generated, and
photograph the contents of the 40-ga trash container as it was
filled.