Caribbean’s First Food-Waste Summit and Zero-Waste Culinary Festival

Jodie White, host of Freedom 106.5 FM’s “Human Impact” program, welcomed social-enterprise founder and CEO Sian Young to discuss innovative waste-management solutions for agribusiness. Young, who leads the venture “Siel Environmental,” described her company’s focus on “waste systems architecture,” helping corporations and hospitality businesses design more efficient waste-management processes.

She explained that waste management extends far beyond landfill disposal, encompassing collection, transportation, processing, education, recovery, and final disposal. In agriculture, this includes chemical residues, inorganic plastics from irrigation systems, and organic by-products such as spoiled produce, animal waste, and food-processing scraps. Young emphasized that all these streams can be transformed into valuable resources through composting, biogas, biofuels and other up-cycling methods. She cited a Barbados colleague who creates bio-fuel from sargassum seaweed and rum-distillery waste.

When asked about low-cost, high-impact actions, Young highlighted composting as the most accessible solution. She outlined several methods—static-pile, in-vessel, vermi-composting with worms, and bokashi—explaining that even households can start with simple kitchen scraps. She also noted that innovative, inexpensive adaptations—such as repurposing wheelbarrow parts—demonstrate the creativity needed to turn waste into revenue streams for farmers and agribusinesses.

The discussion culminated with details of the upcoming Caribbean Foodways Summit and Zero-Waste Culinary Festival, scheduled for 1 October at the Radisson Hotel. The event will feature a food-waste summit and a showcase of zero-waste culinary creations. Early-bird tickets are available through the website www.sielenvironmental.com/food-waste-summit and via the Instagram handle @SIELTT, where additional program information is posted.

Young’s message reinforced a shift in perspective: waste should be seen as a resource, not a disposable problem, and collaborative innovation can drive both environmental impact and new revenue opportunities for the region’s agribusiness sector.