Dumpster Mania-Puerto Plata

HOWMAR · Oct 21, 2005

What's the story in Puerto Plata?
Anybody driving will notice the hunderds of brand new garbage dumpsters placed on the main roads, about every 50-100 feet in some areas. Literally, hundreds of dumpsters. (Literally, no pun intended.)
Questions that come to mind:

Is there equipment to empty all these dumpsters?
Where did the money come from to buy all these dumpsters? Who got the contract? How much was pocketed?
When will the first car vs. dumpster accident occur?
How many of these dumpsters will be appropriated as home additions or sheds?
Couldn't the money spent on these dumpsters have been better spent elsewhere?

Never mind, just business as usual in the DR.

Keith R · Oct 21, 2005

You mean this one from La Vega (see pic below)? Not sure how well this system will work in the DR

, but it significantly improved the litter problem in Montevideo, Uruguay...

HOWMAR · Oct 21, 2005

Keith R said:
You mean this one from La Vega (see pic below)? Not sure how well this system will work in the DR , but it significantly improved the litter problem in Montevideo, Uruguay...

That's it.

planner · Oct 21, 2005

There was a place just outside sosua with hundreds of them sitting there. I wonder if that is where they came from

I too wonder how they will be emptied? It takes a special attachment on a garbage truck!

We shall see how many disappear too!

HOWMAR · Oct 21, 2005

I think I saw one already with illegal electric and cable hookups.

Criss Colon · Oct 21, 2005

I Commented On Those "Dumpsters" On DR1 Las Time I Was In Sosua

I was ridding with "Escott" when we passed a vacant lot on the highway between Puerto Plata an Sosua filled with several hundred new,but "overgrown with weeds" dumpsters.Looks like they took them out of the lot and onto the streets.These dumpsters were tried in Santo Domingo about two years ago without success! They were fine for a couple of months,but then "Dominicanismo" set in! The special trucks needed to lift and dump the containers completely destroyed all the containers.Those not destroyed by the trucks were demolished along all the streets of the city of Santo Domingo.I doubt there are any left today on the South Side of the Island!
But THAT is not the purpose of the dumpsters/trucks in the first place now is it??? The real purpose behind this,and all the other stupid goverment projects,is to bid the contract,buy or build the project,and steal the money by kickbacks/commisions/and "My brother-in-law's construction company built it"!:bandit:

So was the "Project" a "Success" or not??? You decide!

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Keith R · Oct 21, 2005

oh, it wouldn't surprise me if they were bought without the trucks to empty them with. I've seen too many official visits by Dominican officials to Italy or Spain or even France with declarations of having just purchased this or that magical recycling technology that will solve all the DR's waste problems. If they arrive on Dominican soil at all, they often are not deployed, not deployed properly, are found not to fit the Dominican situation after all (this is always found out after the checks are already cashed, of course), or not properly maintained. Upshot is, they become more expensive rusted hulks....

But as I said, other municipalities in Latin America have made the system work, so it's not "a Latin thing." It can done. In fact, CC, you told me over the phone one time of how it was made to work in your own neighborhood. Care to share that with the board? Maybe if the entire system was designed with your neighborhood example in mind, it might work in SD too someday

...

LarrySpencer · Oct 21, 2005

JDJones said:
My favorite is still the garbage trucks in Santo Domingo. There are quite a few locations where trash is picked up in small trucks, then transferred to the large "compression" trucks at stratigic locations around town, rather that just driving the small truck to the dump. So, garbage in bags is handled two, maybe three times before it gets to the dump, where it is gone through again by little kids with their parents, that make a living off the things other people throw away.

Ain't recycling grand?

HOWMAR · Oct 24, 2005

Well, one week into this glorious public works project, it is indeed Dominican business as usual. Most dumpsters have yet to be emptied (in fact, I don't know if any have been emptied). Many are overflowing with garbage, which is spewing into the streets. But, the rats are happy. Both the rodent type getting fat on the garbage and the human type getting fat on the dumpster contract.

Keith R · Dec 5, 2005

I'm curious for an update from our DR1ers in the PP-Sosua area. How are the dumpsters now? Buried under a mountain of trash, never emptied and forgotten? Or showing signs of being emptied and used regularly?

I hear from folks that are in La Vega regularly that the system is working pretty well there, and the streets are being kept clean.

If not working in PP-Sosua, any reports/clues/indications (all joking & cycnical remarks aside!) as to why not?

Any pictures that DR1ers of the PP/Sosua dumpsters and their environs can send to the Green Team [greenteam@dr1.com] would be greatly appreciated -- it'll help in our upcoming series on waste in the DR.

Thanks,
Keith

HOWMAR · Dec 5, 2005

Keith R said:
I'm curious for an update from our DR1ers in the PP-Sosua area. How are the dumpsters now? Buried under a mountain of trash, never emptied and forgotten? Or showing signs of being emptied and used regularly?

I hear from folks that are in La Vega regularly that the system is working pretty well there, and the streets are being kept clean.

If not working in PP-Sosua, any reports/clues/indications (all joking & cycnical remarks aside!) as to why not?

Any pictures that DR1ers of the PP/Sosua dumpsters and their environs can send to the Green Team [greenteam@dr1.com] would be greatly appreciated -- it'll help in our upcoming series on waste in the DR.

Thanks,
Keith

In POP I am actually shocked. I see the truck emptying the dumpsters regularly. In some areas they are emptied daily. I think as long as the truck continues to work things will remain pretty god. Who knows what will happen if there is a breakdown.
The only problem I have seen is property owners who don't want the dumpster on their sidewalk who push it out into the roadway.

planner · Dec 5, 2005

I am also amazed, it appears that they are being used and respected!!!! They have really made a differnce.

Keith R · Dec 5, 2005

HOWMAR said:
In POP I am actually shocked. I see the truck emptying the dumpsters regularly. In some areas they are emptied daily. I think as long as the truck continues to work things will remain pretty god. Who knows what will happen if there is a breakdown.
The only problem I have seen is property owners who don't want the dumpster on their sidewalk who push it out into the roadway.

Hmmm, they had the same resistance by small businesses in Montevideo when this system was implemented. I can't remember how they overcame it (I'll have to email my waste expert friends there), but they did. Maybe there's a lesson there that we can pass on to the North Coast mayors...

Like I said, would love any pics people are willing to send along about the dumpsters and/or the trash problem on the North Coast (or anywhere in the DR, for that matter!). If we use them in the Green Team blog series on waste and recycling, we give you attribution for the photo. I realize most people don't take pictures of trash like I do :cheeky: , but maybe if we did and talked more openly about the need for clean-up, some businesses, residents and local officials would get off their rears and start doing something about it....

Best Regards,
Keith
Green Team

Keith R · Dec 5, 2005

planner said:
I am also amazed, it appears that they are being used and respected!!!! They have really made a differnce.

Cool! I'm very glad to hear it. I was a wee bit skeptical, even though I had seen with my own eyes last August how much they seemed to help La Vega.

Anybody willing to go to city hall, and ask the people responsible for it to discuss why they think it's working, what lessons they have learned in the process, and what remains to be done? I think the interview would make a great Green Team blog entry.

Anybody willing to do it would get full credit, even if they leave the proofing and editing work to me. I just can't do the legwork myself.

Heck, maybe I can get Alan or Christa to buy a few beers to the North Coaster who takes on this guest blog challenge.

Best Regards,
Keith

P.S. to Planner -- Still waiting for those comments!

planner · Dec 5, 2005

Keith I have posted the first of my comments.

As to tracking down the reasons why the garbage containers are successful - I doubt my spanish is good enough to be able to do the job. BUT, I am willing to try!

Keith R · Dec 5, 2005

planner said:
Keith I have posted the first of my comments.

As to tracking down the reasons why the garbage containers are successful - I doubt my spanish is good enough to be able to do the job. BUT, I am willing to try!

Wow, great!

Hmm, maybe you can rope one of those kindly North Coasters with decent Spanish skills (Marco? Christa? Ken? Eddy? Grahame?) to accompany you and help out on the communications part of it. Just a thought!

Rocky · Dec 5, 2005

We had those dumpsters in our streets in Sosua for almost 2 years, but they had no truck to service them, so they dumped them all on that vacant lot mentioned in another reply.
When people started puting garbage in them, the city workers went around strapping them up, so that nobody would use them, as they had no means to empty them.
I am truly amazed that they finally got the trucks, 5 or 6 years later.
From what I understand, they are made in Italy, so they might be a bit more resistant than if they were home made here.

Keith R · Dec 5, 2005

Thanks, Marco. Would be interesting to find out the story behind the story, see if this is a change that's going to last or not, what took so long for the system to be properly implemented, what lessons have been learned, etc. Would you be willing to help my hapless volunteer (Planner) find it out, or know someone who might? :classic:

I'm thinking that there might be an interest compare/contrast to be had here between La Vega's implementation and that of PP/Sosua.... :glasses:

Keith
Green Team
"We never rest" :laugh:

carina · Dec 5, 2005

At my street in POP they come around 4,30 p.m. every day and take care of the garbage from the dumpsters, even Sundays.

Rocky · Dec 5, 2005

I can drive over to the site where they were keeping the dumpsters, to see if those are the ones that are now in POP.
I'll let you know when I find out.
As for any other info, I don't think I could find out any more than what I already mentioned.
But, if you would like to assign me a job, could I be the guy who collects the 1,000 pesos fines for littering?

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