Haiti

We will deliver a triple win for people living in poverty: Improved health, improved environment (with less plastic ending up in the oceans) and income generation.

What our partner is doing:

A start-up social enterprise is providing a sustainable waste collection service with a commercial element that enables people to earn a living through the sale of compost and paving bricks made from recycled plastic.

Where:

The project in Lamentin Quarter in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, is being adapted for scale-up across the rest of the Carrefour neighbourhoods.

Why:

Half a million people live in the Carrefour commune of Port-au-Prince, and 250 metric tonnes of rubbish – 5% of which is plastic – are generated daily.

Almost none of this waste is collected.

Communities have no choice but to throw their rubbish into the street or the local river that runs into the Caribbean Sea, or to burn it. This results in rubbish-filled streets and neighbourhoods, waterways clogged with waste, and a river/ocean polluted with plastic. And local residents don’t have a way to demand, or deliver, change.

Open dumping of waste not only causes outbreaks of disease but also flooding. Open burning of waste is damaging people’s health and the planet. Carbon emissions from the open burning of waste exceed all other carbon emissions in Haiti, and amount to 3 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

How:

This project is:

  1. Generating a grassroots movement for change by equipping young people with the knowledge they need to:
    – change their own attitudes towards waste
    – lobby the local government to do more to reduce the amount of waste being generated, including single-use plastics, and improve waste management services.
  2. Providing a weekly door-to-door rubbish collection service for local households who will pay the same monthly amount as they currently pay for informal collectors to take their waste and burn it or dump it in the ocean.
  3. Turning the organic waste collected into compost.
  4. Turning the plastic waste collected into paving bricks for roads and driveways.
  5. Recycling as much as possible, and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

The project in numbers

  • By the end of 2021, 4,000 homes (20,000 residents) in Lamentin, Carrefour, will have a rubbish collection service.
  • Across the project life-cycle, a further 5,000 people will learn about the importance of reducing waste.
  • By 2023, waste being dumped into oceans or burnt openly will be reduced by 182.7 tonnes per month.
  • By 2023, 49,000 kilos of compostable waste will be collected per month – creating 535 sacks of compost monthly.
  • By 2023, 1,450 paving bricks will be made monthly from recycled plastic.
  • By 2023, 148.3 tonnes per month will be recycled, and almost half that will be plastic – helping to protect the planet and create at least six jobs for young people in waste collection, and further income–generating opportunities through the sale of compost sacks, paving bricks, and the wider recycling business.
  • It’s hoped the project will become a model for a much wider waste service in Carrefour, benefiting up to half a million people in due course.