Re-emerge from the waste

According to a recent World Bank report, the percentage of waste collection in Haiti is among the lowest in the world: only 12% of the garbage produced is disposed of in some way (though not always the best). The rest remains on the road, around homes and in markets, fills rivers and clogs canals, arrives in the sea and seeps into the ground, ends up in improvised landfills in the open air. And often, in the evening, it gets burned, generating toxic fumes and turning, once charred, into feed for goats and pigs. The rubbish – fatrà in Creole – is in short one of the most serious environmental and health problems in the country. The encumbrance of waste, moreover, undermines the safety of cities and territories: a watercourse blocked by plastic will more easily overflow in case of heavy rains; a road clogged with piles of waste will become impassable when it’s necessary to bring help to someone or move away from a dangerous area. This is not due, as one might think, to excessive waste production per capita. Haiti is below the global average, with a daily quantity of 0.58 kg per person. Santo Domingo, richest half of the island, is already above the kg per capita; the Italian average is 1.3 kg, while in the United States we even reach 2.2 kg per capita. The problem is the lack of infrastructure (the same applies to wastewater and sewage) and a proven system of management and disposal. And before that, the lack of education on these issues, not only to create the habit of recycling, but also, more trivially, to teach how living in the middle of the garbage is dangerous for health. In the organizational vacuum that the country suffers, however, there are several realities that try to raise awareness of Haitians on this issue, promoting good practices in the field of recycling.