- Various types of plastics are used to make a majority of the products we use every day. From water and soda bottles to packaging, bags, and even clothing plastics are an integral part of life in every country.
- Some types of plastics can be recycled, reducing waste in the environment and providing work for people involved in plastic recycling. Anyone can collect these plastics and turn them in for payment!
- In the past, collectors would work to accumulate loads of plastic and then walk and wait days to exchange them for payment at Haiti Recycling’s main facility in Delmas. Because of the bulkiness of plastics and the amount of time it took to exchange the plastics for payment, earning potential was limited.
- Ramase Lajan creates redemption centers throughout the Country where collectors can exchange their plastics for the same prices much closer to home – dramatically increasing their collecting time and earning potential!
- Each independently operated franchise collection center is a self-contained facility, fully transportable, and equipped with everything needed to conduct plastic collection from day one!
- The collection center requires NO POWER to operate and features a manually operated bottle crusher, a battery operated LFT scale, and everything needed to purchase recyclable plastics right there in the local community.
- The community recycling centers pay the same rates to collectors as Haiti Recycling’s main facility – so collectors can make more money in less time with no downside!
- The independent operators of the recycling centers make periodic trips to Haiti Recycling, where they are reimbursed for the materials they’ve purchased along with a predetermined markup as their profit.
- Donor funds are only used to fund the one-time costs for each community recycling center and conduct training for the owner / operators. From then on, the sales of plastics fund all associated operations and wages.
- Haiti Recycling washes and grinds the purchased PET plastic into a flake product that is exported to the United States and used in recycled plastic production! Other plastics like HDP are exported in bulk for processing elsewhere.
- Executives Without Borders estimates the need for approximately 2,000 community recycling centers maximizing employment and the collection and processing of plastics. With more than 1,500 tons of new plastic entering Haiti every month, even 1000+ centers working at full capacity would take many years to tackle the existing demand. Once Haitians know they can exchange their plastics for money, they will keep them rather than throw them on the ground – thus preventing new plastics from entering the nation’s waste stream.
- Removing these plastics from the environment will increase sanitation and yield numerous public health benefits. Clean canals will flow freely and contribute less to the spread of waterborne diseases.
The program also creates real opportunity for Haiti to become a plastic recycling hub of the Caribbean modeling a solution for other island nations with similar problems.
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