A model for waste site remediation to reduce climate impacts and ocean plastic pollution

En Español

Until recently, most of the over 11,000 metric tons of daily waste generated in the Dominican Republic (DR) has been discarded in informal and open dumpsites due to limited landfill sites and management capacity—this leads to the contamination of waterways from unlined disposal areas; polluting the air from gases emanating from the waste; and creating spontaneous combustion fires from the buildup of methane. In the DR, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean provides technical assistance to the national government’s strategic programs unit to stop the environmental damage from these open dumpsites.

Since 2021, with USAID’s support, the DR has remediated two of the four dumps in Samaná Province on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, which will eventually be closed and serve as transfer stations once the Province’s new regional sanitary landfill is developed (with additional technical assistance from
Clean Cities, Blue Ocean). These efforts have resulted in the safe management of more than 357,000 metric tons of waste—including over 47,000 metric tons of plastic, the equivalent of 188 million plastic bottles—from the two dumpsites in Samaná Province. The improvements have reduced plastics leakage and greenhouse gas emissions, positively impacted community health, and enhanced conditions for the workers who sort and manage waste on site.