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.
|
