Tony C said:
2nd....Every trash can in the DR is rifled through by people looking for Bottles, Cans ect.
Well, trash cans -- actually, usually trash bags placed on the curb or in those raised metal containers some neighborhoods have -- are often rifled in SD, that's true. Primarily for glass bottles, especially intact Presidente bottles, rum bottles (various brands), and soda bottles. Steel/tinplate cans are also collected, cardboard occassionally too (although I'm told more cardboard is picked out at the dump than from individual trash cans/bins/bags). The soda bottles can be turned in at most
colmados for a couple of pesos. Rum bottles tend to be used to store things (ever been sold kerosene in an old rum bottle?), or in some cases, for other products sold by artesanal producers (such as honey you can get in old Brugal bottles). The Presidente bottles, if intact and clean, can be redeemed at the Presidente plant (unless things have changed since 1999). Cardboard can be sold to various producers of paper/board products, or can be used in work (how many of us have had guys "protect our cars from the sun" with used cardboard?) or in houses. Many of those cans are re-used in households to boil eggs, prepare water for coffee, etc.
Three things not picked out so much by scavengers in the DR and recycled are (a) newsprint; (b) plastics; and (c) aluminum cans. Why (a) & (c) are not done much in the DR is a mystery to me. In the case of
newsprint, it is recycled the world over, and as I understand it, a large portion of the cost of newspapers in the DR is from imported newsprint. Why not recycled newsprint recycled locally? As I understand it, costs of recycling newsprint have fallen dramatically in recent years while quality of the recycled fiber has gone up alot.
On aluminum, in most of Latin America and the Caribbean, aluminum cans are the "gold" in recycling -- they bring a high value, so it's the part that is fought over among scavengers & recycling businesses. It is usually even profitable to collect even if the amount collected is not large and it must be recycled in order to be recovered. So one would think that would be true in the DR too....
It's
plastics that worry me in the DR. They are rapidly gaining market share in packaging food and beverages, yet there is little plastic recovery or recycling in the DR, although I suspect there could be, especially since so much of the plastic and plastic packaging the DR utilizes is imported. They are contributing mightily to litter and to dump/fill accumulation. They are fast replacing the returnable/refillable glass botttles in the beverage market. I suspect the DR could have profitable high- & low-density polyethylene (HDPE & LDPE) & PET recycling operations if carefully designed & implemented. Polystyrene (PS, known to many by the brandname "styrofoam") is more problematic, as is polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
The DR recycles like you cannot believe.
More than some would believe, but perhaps less than you believe, Tony. There is much informal recycling in the materials I mentioned above, but huge portions not touched by recycling efforts. One large portion in the Dominican waste stream that is not really recycled to a significant degree, yet could be and could be done profitably, are
construction & demolition ("C&D") wastes.
3rd....Recycling has been a major waste of taxpayers money in the US. What makes you think it would work better in the DR?
Common myth which has been promoted by those with a political bent or an interest in keeping wasting alive. Many U.S. waste experts I know can point to successful municipal programs that cost taxpayers on a net basis little to nothing, and in some cases, make money for the city and/or its contractor. Mayor Bloomberg argued he was saving NYC money when he cut back his City's recycling program over a year ago. But he is now re-establishing portions cut before. Why? Because the City Comptroller's audit showed that the cut-back
was costing the City money rather than saving it.
Now, by no means am I implying that the good results can be duplicated in the DR, especially with the mess of a SD's trash collection system Balaguer made with his ironclad sweetheart contract. There are many obstacles, including corruption, mismanagement, need to educate and change civic habits. Would take alot of work.
Regards,
Keith