A Little About Composting in Latin America & the Caribbean...
I have always been amazed that there is not more composting done -- whatever the scale -- in Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) in general, and the DR in particular.
The few successful projects in LAC that I have ever heard about have all been small-scale -- a family home, a farm co-op, small community-based projects. When I interviewed waste experts in 1997 for the first edition of my book, they all insisted that composting had failed miserably in LAC and that there was not a single large composting project they could name. I found this difficult to accept, since composting seemed like a natural for LAC's conditions, there's a wealth of (often free) information & technical help on the subject, and it can be quite cheap to do. But by-and-large my sanitary- and environmental engineer friends were right -- municipal projects begun in the 1970s and 1980s had all shut down. Only tiny "pilot projects" in rural areas and small towns could be found here and there, and some of these did not look self-sustaining.
I was therefore excited when asked in 1999 to sit in on a meeting with city authorities in San Francisco de Macoris, whose mayor had cleaned up the city streets & markets and vowed to solve the city's waste disposal problem by, among other things, launching a city-backed compositing project. Other people at the meeting included people from GTZ, the German technical assistance agency that does considerable consulting on waste issues in LAC. Unfortunately as fate would have it my family moved back to the US shortly thereafter, so I did not get to sit in on subsequent brainstorming & discussion sessions. So I don't know all the why's & wherefore's of it, but ultimately SFM decided not to proceed with the municipal composting project.
When I researched the second edition of my book in 2001, I did manage to find one large-scale project running & doing so with some mild success. Little progess in 4-5 years...
Here's what I said in the 2002 Edition:
The regional deficit in use of composting is more difficult to account for. The high organic content and humidity of most of the region?s MSW, the ambient temperature in most countries during the year, and the continuing need for fertilizer of the region?s still prominent agricultural community would all seem to suggest favorable conditions for widespread practice of composting. Many composting projects initiated in the 1970s and 1980s failed miserably (in some cases, such as those in Acapulco and Medellin, the composting facilities bought from foreign suppliers were never put to use). A thorough analysis of why the efforts failed has not been made, but most local experts blame poor quality compost, lack of market development and consumer education (in this case, of farmers, gardeners and landscapers), poor pricing and lack of a long-term commitment from the authority investing in the project. Some composting facilities currently exist in Brazil (notably in S?o Paulo), and small-scale community projects have been tried by bilateral aid agencies and NGOs in Central America, Ecuador and Peru.
My question is, is composting only viable in a country such as the DR when it is done on a small scale? Or can some entrepreneur, company, co-op or allied group manage to get a larger scale project going that is self-sustaining -- i.e., pays for its production & marketing costs, plus some for reinvesting & maybe even some in profit (sure would encourage others to emulate them!)?
What do you guys think?
Hey sjh, you're our resident "Gentleman Farmer" , any thoughts on this topic?
BTW, anyone interested in web-based info sources & contacts on composting practices & issues?
Best Regards,
Keith :glasses: