Yes, of course any viable & effective waste management system needs a number of elements, among them (1) reliable, frequent and broad collection services, not only for residential areas, but industrial and commercial as well; (2) a steady and adequate funding stream, preferably through a bill payment and collection system that actually works; (3) an adequate and properly controlled (in the sanitary management sense) disposal option, usually a landfill (as opposed to a dump).
Judging from what I saw and heard when in SD in August, and from what most people have been saying on this
thread, the National District (DN) portion of Metropolitan Santo Domingo seems to be making improvements on collection and street cleaning. And although I did not get a chance to visit the site myself during my brief August visit, an environmental engineer whose opinion I trust tells me that the firm that the government hired to turn Duquesa from dump to controlled landfill has made significant strides.
Now if SD East, West and North could just clean up their acts, and more people be forced to pay their trash collection bills, then maybe there'd be more than modest progress to talk about! LOL But that looks like it's going to take awhile -- maybe until they lose their current mayors?
I don't by any means endorse the type of projects discussed in the article; I only posted it here for informational purposes since the topic was not covered in DR1 news.
But I do think it's not too early for the government to be thinking through how to cut the waste load and promote recovery, whether through promotion of reuse (as in a deposit/refund system for certain packaging), material recycling or energy recovery or some combination of those. These systems take time to conceive, create and must go along with a strong citizen awareness and education campaign if they are to have a real chance of succeeding.
And they do not necessarily have to be grandiose, expensive, capital-intensive investments like Dominican governments always seem to favor (probably because it means more money to graft). I offerred to share some ideas with the government on this,
gratis, but they have not taken up the offer -- perhaps because they cannot trust someone not looking for a "commission."
Too bad, because I'm going to discuss some of the ideas anyway in the pages of the
Green Team blog, whether they like it or not.
BTW, CC, I'm just as skeptical about WTE (waste-to-energy) project proposals in the DR context. In case you've forgotten just how skeptical, refresh your memory by looking at this
post.
That said, unlike some, I refuse to throw up my hands and say "this is the DR, nothing can be done about it." If everyone does that, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What the Government May Have in Mind for the Trash Problem...
