Punta Cana, La Altagracia - Grupo Puntacana Foundation and the Innovation Lab of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB-Lab) held their first symposium entitled "The Future of Garbage 2023: Organic Waste", in which lessons learned and good practices of Grupo Puntacana on the search for a comprehensive model for solid waste management were presented.
The symposium aims to present strategies for the profitable management of organic waste in tourist areas, reducing costs, and minimizing the environmental impact in the Dominican Republic. It seeks to present concrete and replicable examples to integrate into the national dialogue on waste management, thus promoting the valorization and use of waste, with the projection of eventually transforming garbage into products and services.
The meeting was held at the Cocoloba Hall of the Cana Golf & Beach Club, at Puntacana Resort & Club; and it was opened by Frank Elias Rainieri, President, and CEO of Grupo Puntacana; Katharina Falkner Olmeda, representative of IDB-Lab in the Dominican Republic; and Jake Kheel, Vice President of the Grupo Puntacana Foundation.
"The proper handling of Solid Waste has always been a topic of interest and concern for Grupo Puntacana. Sustainability and social development are the DNA of our company. Therefore, with great pride, we have made an investment to transform our Recycling and Incineration Center into a Valuation Center, with the aim of minimizing the amount of waste that we dispose of in the regional sanitary register," said Frank Elias Rainieri, President, and CEO of Grupo Puntacana.
The initiative intends to have the support of key actors from different tourist poles of the country, representatives of the hotel sector, municipal authorities, and the central government, as well as entrepreneurs from the waste sector.
"What has been achieved in this experiment is an example that, with small actions, substantial changes can be achieved, and we invite other groups and companies to share their experiences," emphasized Katharina Falkner Olmeda, representative of IDB-Lab
The Grupo Puntacana Foundation and IDB-Lab indicate that the comprehensive waste management model they seek must include appropriate public infrastructure and technical knowledge to prevent the vast majority of waste from ending up in private, public, and even clandestine open-air dumps.
"We are currently missing a great opportunity to turn the garbage problem into a competitive advantage for Punta Cana as a tourist destination. Through the project with IDB-Lab, we have created a strategy based on field experiments with new technologies and methods to manage organic waste sustainably," said Jake Kheel, Vice President of the Grupo Puntacana Foundation.
Similarly, specialists explain that tourist resorts and communities in the Punta Cana area generate approximately between 250 to 350 tons of solid waste such as plastic, aluminum, glass, paper, and organic waste, making the use of waste in the area to reduce environmental impact opportune.
Speakers
The keynote speech "Perspectives and Successful Experience in Latin American Countries in Waste Management" was given by Luis Felipe Dornfeld Braga Culturato, a Biogas and Waste Specialist for UN Industrial Development. Meanwhile, Jake Kheel, Vice President of the Puntacana Group Foundation, addressed the topic "Lessons Learned from the Model Circular Economy Project for Solid Waste in Tourist Areas."
The strategy of the public sector to achieve proper waste management was presented by Armando Paíno Henríquez, Executive Director of the Public-Private Trust for Comprehensive Solid Waste Management, and Indhira de Jesús, Deputy Minister of Environmental Management at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, with moderation from Smeldy Ramirez Ruffino of BID-Lab.
Other topics such as "Biogas: Recipes for Organic Waste and Sargassum - Results and Upcoming Plans" were addressed by Alvin Rodríguez from Universidad APEC and specialist Carlos Noel from Winnow spoke about the use of monitoring technology in reducing costs and environmental impact.
Meanwhile, Susanne Leib, Environmental Manager of the Puntacana Group Foundation, presented on the topic of "Composting with Forced Aeration: Experiments on Organic Waste and Sargassum."
About BID - Lab
BID-Lab is the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group. They mobilize financing, knowledge, and connections to catalyze innovation for inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean. They develop innovative projects and early-stage ventures with the potential to generate large-scale impact, and they foster entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems and systematize and disseminate knowledge to connect ideas and scale their impact. bidlab.org/es
About Puntacana Group Foundation
The Puntacana Group Foundation is the non-profit organization through which the Puntacana Group creates opportunities for the well-being of the inhabitants of the area and promotes innovative solutions for the preservation of the region's ecosystem.
Their innovative environmental and ecological initiatives, including a Sustainability Center dedicated to research, programs for coral restoration, preservation of marine species, and protection of endangered animals, are recognized and extrapolated nationally and internationally. puntacana.org
