Run Across May - Our Waste Collectors, Our Heroes

Our waste collection network in Haiti consists of our center owners, who supply to our recycling partner, and our collectors, who supply to our center owners. Both groups manage their own businesses and we support their efforts to remove an increasing volume of plastic material from the environment and to life human rights standards within their work. Here’s a photo of a group of our center owners at a recent professional development training.

This is Nadine, one of our first collection center owners, and a leader in our network. She’s one of our highest performers. With her business, she supports over 50 collectors to make an income to put food on the table for their families.

While the majority of our collectors gather from streets and canals, there’s a portion of our collection network that gathers directly from the largest open landfill in Port-au-Prince, called Truitier. This is Truitier, where around 2,000 people live. In addition to supporting our collectors there, we’re also working to ensure kids are going to school, instead of spending their day in the landfill. Your support helps us ensure that our kids do not experience interruptions in their education.

Jean Nause, one of our center owners in Port-au-Prince is discussing his vision for how to safely gather the valuable plastic material out of canals across the Port-au-Prince.

Once plastic bottles are gathered and sorted, they go into super sacks. Our collection center owners each have a small team who completes this step to enable the material to be delivered and sold to our recycling partner.

Here are two center employees filling a super sack for transport to our recycling partner. This means they’ll get paid for the material and the center can purchase more material from their collectors.

In addition to plastic bottles, our entrepreneurs also collect other types of plastic material, and sometimes paper products and metals as well. Diversification is key to business, and it’s no different in recycling.

Our team spends their day working with each collection center to help them improve their business. This includes supporting business plans, providing capital investments, and business and professional training. We also get to know our collectors so we can help structure business models that benefit all workers.

Here’s our team working on-site with a center owner to establish a budget for his business, along with a growth plan that will support living income for his collectors.

Logistics can make or break this industry. We spend a lot of time with our center owners and collectors making their work more efficient, supporting things like transportation, and coordinating routes to ensure the material can safely make it to our recycling partner. This is a partnership, through and through. With your support today, we can both remove more material out of landfills and the ocean, and grow our collectors’ income. Join us by making a donation today!

We love seeing an overflow of plastic material at our collection centers. This means that more plastic is picked out of the environment and our collectors are increasing their income. It also allows us to make further capital investments for our centers so that they can continue to grow and meet our operating standards. Your support can help us help our centers thrive!