Mafias blamed for recycling difficulties at the landfill
The lack of a recycling culture and the weaknesses exhibited in the handling of solid waste are impeding exporters of plastic waste from having access to materials in good conditions and at reasonable prices without intermediaries.
As readers might remember, at the Duquesa garbage dump, a group of men and women known as “divers” (buzos) are the ones who pick through the solid waste as it arrives every day and from sunup to sundown, scavenge for anything plastic, metal, or any other recyclable item. At sundown they gather their treasure trove and place it in a dumpster until they have a sufficient amount to fill one or two trucks.
It is at this point that the intermediaries enter the picture, and a group which calls itself the Recyclers’ Association, and the divers are forced to sell their recycled materials to them. This group has prohibited the divers from selling their recycled materials directly to formal (i.e. legally constituted) or informal recyclers.
This forces processors and exporters to purchase their materials from “suppliers” according to Carlos Mancebo who heads a recycling firm. He told EL DIA that “there is no law that regulates this business and so we have to buy our materials this way.” Apparently, the garbage truck drivers for the different city governments take advantage of the market and before they even arrive at the Duquesa site they take out the plastic at sites provided by either formal or informal recyclers according to another report.
The informal recyclers offer better prices because they don’t pay any taxes. According to Green Love, a recycling outfit, they have received 280,000 pounds of plastic over the last four years.
Source: DR1, El dia
Aug 2, 2018
Category: DR News |