Municipal
Recycling Program of San Juan del Sur
The growing population of San Juan del Sur has resulted in an
increasingly large production of solid waste. Until recently most of
the trash has been taken to a city landfill where it was burned and
buried. The burning of plastic materials is obviously hazardous to the
environment and to the people that live near the dump.
The Pilot Project of the
Recycling
Progrma is financed by the hotel Pelican Eyes Piedras y Olas, German
NGO DED, and the Mayor’s Office of San Juan del Sur, and is
administered by Comunidad Connect. The first phase of the project
focuses on plastic bottles and hard plastic, which are the most common
recyclable inorganic products. The bottles are collected on the trash
dump and separated based on color. They are then sold to an exporter
and shipped to Managua, from where they are again shipped to Guatemala
for processing. Other materials that will be collected are glass and
aluminum.
Phase two of this
program, scheduled for
the first quarter of 2008, will incorporate organic waste to produce
compost to be used in a plant nursery and for sale. Also, animal waste
will be transformed into topsoil using a process known as worm-casting.
In the long term the program will work with the population of San Juan
del Sur and local businesses to separate materials at the primary
source.
Currently, technical
support is needed
from experts in the production of compost and topsoil and in management
of nurseries. Comunidad Connect is looking for volunteers to help with
this interesting and challenging project.
