Creating a Sustainable Waste Management Model in Samaná Province, Dominican Republic

Excerpt from the Case Study

Approximately 13,000 tons of waste are generated in the Dominican Republic each day, 2,000-2,500 of which are plastic. This waste is discarded in informal and open dump sites that present a range of serious environmental and human health concerns, including environmental degradation due to improper containment of plastics and other waste, water contamination from unlined dump sites, and air pollution resulting from gasses that emanate from the waste as well as landfill fires sparked by spontaneous combustion due to the build-up methane. The country’s waste management challenges have historically been further perpetuated by limited waste collection services, a lack of coordinated local government resources for community engagement and behavior change, and the lack of a national legal framework to establish action plans, regulations, or enforceable policies.

In Samaná Province—a peninsula on the DR’s northeastern coast— USAID’s CCBO program is working to pilot solutions to stop the flow of plastic pollution into the region’s large, semi-enclosed Samaná Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. With the new SWM law in place, there is high political will to demonstrate progress on addressing the DR’s solid waste challenges. USAID is working closely with stakeholders in Samaná to test SWM approaches that show proof of concept and can be used across the rest of the country—a strategic approach that has received support from the country’s president and other key entities at the national level. CCBO’s role in transforming Samaná into a model province for SWM places USAID’s work at the center of a key moment in the DR’s fight against ocean plastic pollution.

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