Grenada & Saint Lucia, October 26, 2020 (IUCN). Consultant company, Asia Pacific Waste Consultants (APWC), working with IUCN to create a flow analysis of plastics, has developed online training sessions to train in-country teams in Saint Lucia and Grenada to carry out fieldwork activities and gather in-country data on their behalf. As an additional effort to strengthen the online trainings, the APWC team has created a manual for local teams to understand the waste characterisation methodology.

The PWFI project has developed an online working methodology to continue its work in the Caribbean region.

Photo: Martina de Marcos,APWC Project Manager

The training was organised in six modules. The first two modules were one-on-one sessions between the country coordinators and the APWC Project Manager, Ms. Martina de Marcos. The sessions focused in providing an overview of the project, explaining the waste characterisation methodology and health and safety protocols, including those specific to the COVID-19 pandemic to safeguard the heath of the local teams during the fieldwork.

Both countries’ local teams were incorporated in the next two modules. APWC taught the teams the different sorting categories, including plastic categories and the way they would sort it. This was done using games and memorising techniques to allow them to familiarise and feel comfortable while sorting. At the end of this session, the team was asked to download a set of KoBo Toolbox forms to their devices; these would be later used to insert data while in the field. The practical training began on the second on-line group session. The team practiced   interviewing techniques with each other and they undertook an actual waste characterisation of several full garbage bags using scales and the KoBo Toolbox form. Doing this while the Project Manager was connected on-line, allowed that any questions regarding the different sorting categories, difficulties in understanding the questions and using Kobo Toolbox were responded.

Online trainings ended with the fifth and sixth modules, with a refreshment on health and safety precautions and teaching of stockpile and landfill audit techniques and practice.

PWFI seeks to address plastic waste generation and leakage in Small Islands Developing States (SIDS); the project focuses in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and Saint Lucia, and involves participation of the country governments, as well as regional partner, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).  PWFI is a global initiative, funded by Norad and implemented by IUCN.