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The problem of waste - Haiti Video 1

Plastic pollution is a very real problem for people in Haiti. This is part one of a four-part series showing why multinational companies need to #StopTheRubbish and take responsibility for the plastic waste they're producing.

Written by Tearfund | 02 Mar 2020

A polluted waterway in Haiti (Tearfund, 2019)

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Plastic pollution is a very real problem for people in Haiti. This is part one of a four-part series showing why multinational companies need to stop the rubbish and take responsibility for the plastic waste they're producing.

Video transcript

Marc Antoine (Haiti Country Director): ‘So here in Haiti there is a really big issue with waste management. There is a lack of waste collection [and] there is a lack of recycling, which means that when families produce waste during the day it often ends up on the streets. And it causes a lot of issues in regards to flooding when it rains, because the waste that’s in the streets block canals.’

Wilson (community member): ‘One of the biggest issues is that when people throw these [items] in the streets, it causes a lot of waste to get caught up in the ravines. And so whenever there’s still water it causes mosquitoes, and some of the mosquitoes carry malaria.’ 

Pastor Sony (pastor of participating church): ‘This is an issue very close to my heart, because growing up it was never like that. Then suddenly, I have been seeing a flood of plastic bottles and water sachets all over the country, and all over the streets of the capital city.’ 

Marc Antoine: ‘In Haiti we have so many companies who produce a lot of items that are being consumed by the population. So we have water sachets, we have sodas that are being produced in bottles, and people are then throwing them to the streets because of the lack of waste management infrastructure. I think that part of the responsibility firstly falls on our community, but then also the companies to take responsibility and to be accountable for the waste that is being burned, or their bottles that are ending up in floods. So I think that it is important for these companies to take some responsibility.’

Join us in calling on companies to take responsibility for their plastic waste on our Rubbish Campaign page.

Watch the other videos in this four-part series:

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