On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I was able to go with the Recycling team as they visited a few collection centers.  The recycling program has been going on for about a year in Haiti.  Samaritan’s Purse partners with Executives without Borders and Haiti Recycling.  SP workers go to local church leaders and ask them who is responsible and would be interested in starting a business.  The team then takes applications for a new site and after they interview each applicant, they choose the best one.  The chosen recipient is then loaned a building and the necessary tools needed to run the business.  The owner has a certain amount of time to pay back the cost, interest free.  Each day, peddlers bring plastic or aluminum cans they have collected and sell them to the owner.  The peddler receives 4 HTG (10 cents) per pound of plastic and 18 HTG (45 cents) per pound of aluminum cans.  The owner, with the help of SP, arranges a truck to transport all the collected material to Haiti Recycling.  Haiti Recycling pays the owner a little more than the owner paid the peddlers, enabling them to make a profit.  The ultimate goal is for the owner to run the business independent of SP.        

One center we visited was in Leogane.  A few peddlers arrived shortly after us.  One peddler walked up with his bag full of plastic bottles, one rode up on his motorcycle and the last one came on his bicycle.  It is amazing to me how they are able to get these bags full of plastic tied to their transportation or some even balance them on their heads.  The owner of the collection center came and greeted us all.  My job was to take pictures for the recycling team.  I started to take a picture of the man on his motorcycle and he started talking to me in Creole.  Adam told me that the man was proud to have his picture taken because selling plastic has helped him to buy his moto.  Each peddler empties their collected plastic into the owner’s large bag, and then the owner checks the plastic to make sure there is only plastic.  They weigh the bag and then after calculating the amount owed, the peddler receives his/her pay. 

                The recycling team interviewed all the peddlers and the collection center owners.  They all tell how this program has helped them.  Most use the money for food to feed the family or to put children through school.  Some use the money to start other businesses.  The peddler that bought the moto, with the money he earned from selling plastic, now has his own taxi service.  Several of the center owners have started additional businesses out of their centers.  Some sell phone minutes, some charge phones for people, and one has a copy machine for anyone that needs copies made.  The team would then give each owner a bible.  They were very glad and wanted to be able to share with the peddlers.

                This is such a great program.  Out of the 14 centers that SP has helped start, 13 are successful businesses.  The one that was not successful will be taken away and someone else will be given the chance to start a business.  Plastic was thought of as worthless and just tossed out in the street.  Now it is trash that becomes cash.  Ramase Lajan!