Recycling Food and Animal Waste for Social Good in Jamaica: A Thriving Earth Exchange Community Science Partnership

Food waste is the second largest category of solid waste buried in municipal landfills in the United States (USEPA). In Jamaica, the tourism industry generates enormous quantities of food waste which is equally sent to the landfills. Recent trends in renewable energy, recycling and sustainability is to turn this waste stream into environmentally-beneficial resource. CaribShare Biogas is a Jamaican social enterprise turning organic waste from hotels and farms into biogas and fertilizer for sale to help solve the challenges of clean energy, climate resilience, and rural poverty there. Located in the main tourist region of Jamaica, CaribShare Biogas operates a 25,000 ft³ (708 m³) anaerobic digester where biogas is collected to power a 10 kW generator and the digestate is provided to farmers as organic fertilizer. To build the foundations of its "Waste to Fertilizer" program with the farming community of Braco, Trelawny, CaribShare sought technical and marketing assistance of an AGU volunteer/soil scientist. Despite various operational challenges, a giant step forward was realized when organically-sourced fertilizer was harvested from the digester, analyzed, packaged and introduced to the farmers with the assistance of a soil scientist. The AGU Thriving Earth Exchange scientist enabled farmers and responsible officials understand the value (quality), benefits to agriculture, and various ways to use this new resource. There is more work to be done by CaribShare Biogas and the AGU Thriving Earth Exchange scientist but this is the beginning of what is envisaged to become a major force for social change in this area of Jamaica and potentially spread to the rest of the country, and perhaps the region. As an exceptional case study of community science, the 2-week engagement with the AGU Thriving Earth Exchange scientist intertwined with institutional, business, and community stakeholders to sow the seeds of a lasting and transformative collaboration between scientist and community.