**6. Conclusions**

In 2015, the Caribbean group of countries, including many SIDS met in Trinidad and Tobago to chart out a prioritization program for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promulgated by the United Nations for attainment by 2030. Notably, SDG 12, which focuses on "responsible consumption and production" was absent from the prioritization. Furthermore, the 10 Year Framework Plan (10YFP) for implementing SDG 12 for SIDS and in accordance with the SAMOA Pathway has thus far not provided any tangible policy drivers. The lack of progress at the macro-level of the SDG

Agenda may also be traced to some of the policy inertia due to structural issues identified through this case study.

Notwithstanding the above, while we are unable to answer the question that follows fully within this paper, the evidence presented does raise a larger question of whether or not waste managemen<sup>t</sup> represents a wicked problem or whether it is simply a symptom of a wicked system of unsustainable production and consumption. Moreover, the paper reviews the unique case of Trinidad and Tobago, which is home to modest but emerging industries that produce consumer goods for local and export markets, and also have the impact of making waste minimization more complex. The additional challenge of effectively processing and minimizing waste from imported and heavily packaged consumer goods make the top-down approach reviewed within the case study more problematic. Indeed, the top-down and fragmented approach to waste managemen<sup>t</sup> governance within the twin-island surely lends some justification for our characterization of this policy challenge as a 'wicked problem.

The results of our study show that even in small island states, devolution of waste managemen<sup>t</sup> has the potential to deliver more effective development dividends. Waste managemen<sup>t</sup> and particularly plastics waste managemen<sup>t</sup> requires community-level behavioral change and no matter what level of centralized control is exerted, there can be "leakage" in the system given the scale of the challenge. Public-private partnerships may provide a useful opportunity for change but there remains an ongoing concern about linking waste managemen<sup>t</sup> to the broader development agenda for SIDS.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, K.U.S. and S.H.A.; methodology, K.U.S.; formal analysis, K.U.S. and K.N.; investigation, K.N.; writing—original draft preparation, K.U.S., K.N. and D.S.; writing—review and editing, D.S., D.J., S.H.A.; visualization, K.N. and K.U.S.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
