New air burner in place

The new, modern air burner of Ragnar Original Innovation (ROI), the Envirosaver 350, arrived on Saba on Thursday, January 31. Transport to the landfill and the installation of the equipment started immediately thereafter. The air burner will be put into use in the coming week, announced Commissioner Bruce Zagers.

The arrival of the 35 tons air burner at Fort Bay harbor was an impressive sight. Witnessed by Commissioner Zagers, Island Governor Jonathan Johnson, crews of the harbor and the landfill, and the representatives of ROI from New Hampshire and the facilitating company Johnson’s Enterprises from Aruba, the air burner was off-loaded from the transporting ship Midnight Coast.

After its arrival, the air burner, which is equipped with tracks, drove up to the landfill where it was parked next to the recycling building, away from the gut where the old air burner is located. Testing took place over the weekend, closely monitored by ROI Envirosaver technicians Paul Crinklaw and Matt Skinner, and representatives of Johnson’s Enterprises Ian Lejuez, Andrew Lejuez and Jonathan Tromp. Commissioner Zagers was also at hand.

The new burner burns much more effective and efficient, it can handle a lot more volume, and very important, will produce less smoke, explained Zagers. The new burner, which uses an air curtain to contain the smoke and heat, will replace the current, much smaller air burner which has been operational for many years to burn the non-recyclable garbage. “The air curtain of the new burner is far more superior than the old one,” said Zagers.

The new air burner will be much larger and can handle three to four times the volume. It burns the garbage at a higher temperature and generates less smoke. Due to its larger size, the new burner will only have to operate a few times a week. Daily burning will no longer be necessary.

“The new, much more advanced burner will be a huge improvement at the landfill and the process of waste management. It will burn cleaner, more efficiently and with much less smoke. We wanted to take another step into waste management,” said Zagers, who emphasized that it remained very important to separate glass, plastics, card board, aluminum and metal for recycling purposes. “The more is recycled, the less we have to burn.” The ash left from the burning will be deposited at the landfill.

The burner is on tracks which makes it easy to relocate if needed. Additionally, the burner can be tilted to safely remove ash and residues. Thereby it will no longer be necessary to remove ash manually, which is a big improvement in terms of health and safety at the landfill.

The new air burner, which was designed in the US and manufactured in Ontario, Canada, is unique in the region. “We have a first. There is no other like it in the Caribbean,” said Zagers. Jonathan Tromp said that Johnson’s Enterprises also had an air burner at the dump in Aruba, but not as advanced as the new one in Saba.

Commissioner Zagers, Head of the Planning Bureau Bobby Zagers and Manager of the landfill Arnold Hassell went to Canada last year to look at the possibilities for a new air burner. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Manager (I&W) financed the new burner.

GIS Saba.