LIVEALITTLE

Truly, over all, there needs to be less waste in Haiti. For such a poor country, I am surprised to see the large amount of trash on the streets. I half expected that poverty would encourage people to recycle, but it is not in their culture and knowledge to not litter and with all the foreign aid handouts, there also isn't much incentive to reuse. I believe it's USAID who has provided and who refill the huge bladders of water you see scattered around towns. People fill their large jugs via a big tap on the bladder. Because they know the bladder will get refilled, I've seen the tap open, emptying its precious contents onto the streets. In addition, due to the lack of a sanitation program, burning garbage is the only viable method of disposition. We have had to dispose of our own expired medications by burning as well! To help with population employment, a nationwide reimbursement recycling program would clean up the streets and keep people busy. I wonder if there is any organization with a recycling initiative... sadly everyone's main concern at the moment is probably to clean up the earthquake rubble first... Although I have noticed a huge rebar harvesting effort amongst the rubble.