Central American governments should create national public policies to encourage the development of waste-to-energy projects in the region, the director of renewable energy NGO BUN-CA, José María Blanco, told BNamericas.

“We notice there is an important waste-to-energy potential in the region. Central American firms and municipalities could make good use of this potential to develop initiatives to generate energy from methane gas,” Blanco said.

“I don’t think it’s because of a lack of investment that more projects aren’t being developed. In all the countries, there are investors interested, and municipalities can become important partners. But there needs to be a national public policy to accelerate all paperwork that must be completed for the development of these projects,” Blanco added.

Some countries are already taking steps towards improving public policy in the area of waste-to-energy, according to Blanco.

In Costa Rica, for example, a feasibility study has been carried out to determine the possibility of developing waste-to-energy initiatives. In Guatemala, important pre-investment projects are now underway.

Waste-to-energy initiatives can be a good investment for metropolitan governments, due to the high population size and large quantity of waste produced each day, according to Blanco.

“The amount of waste generated must be high to get investors interested in the projects,” Blanco said.

BUN-CA is a Central American non-profit organization promoting the use of renewable energies in the region.

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