IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, will support Environmental Cleaning Solutions S.A. (ECSSA) capacity to recycle plastic in Haiti.
Haiti is considered one of the countries with the greatest risk of plastic entering the ocean. The country generates a large volume of plastic waste in urban areas due to high consumption of treated water, soft drinks, and take away meals sold in plastic containers.
Environmental Cleaning Solutions S.A. (ECSSA), a Haitian recycling company, collects post-consumer plastic materials to transform into high quality plastic flakes for export. ECSSA operates a social business model that facilitates the collection, transformation and sustainable export of recyclable plastic materials. ECSSA has been progressively transforming itself into supplier and innovator around ocean-bound plastics, demonstrating that this problem can be turned into a market opportunity.
IDB Lab's financing of $1,100,000 will support the expansion of ECSSA’s capacity to recycle plastics and produce a wider variety of end products including synthetic lumber for sale to national and international markets. The expansion of ECSSA’s operations and product lines will result in an increase in the number of jobs for plastic collectors and the prices they receive for collecting the plastic. The Haitians and other communities in the wider-Caribbean countries with shores on the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea will benefit from the sustainable preservation of the marine environment, whose livelihoods depend upon.
IDB Lab’s technical cooperation of $400,000 will be used to help build Haiti’s first commercial-scale ocean-bound plastics supply chain and to create blue economy plans for coastal communities participating in this new supply chain. It will be co-executed by the Pan American Development Foundation.
This is the one of proposals selected under the Blue Tech Challenge launched in 2018 to identify business models aiming to contribute to the sustainability of the ocean economy.
An average of 8 million metric tons of plastic materials enter the world’s oceans every year, increasing at the rate of 7 percent each year since 2015. If the current trend continues, the amount of plastic in the ocean will exceed that of fish by 2050. Every minute, a million plastic bottles are bought around the world. As the use of plastic soars, efforts to collect, recycle, and keep it from polluting the oceans have been unable to keep pace. The sheer volume of plastic being produced and the fact that it can take more than 450 years to biodegrade is creating an environmental crisis.
It is estimated that only 11 percent of the solid waste generated in Haiti is collected. Most of post-consumer plastic is openly discarded allowing it to wash directly into canals, sewers, and water bodies. Discarded plastics become breeding ground for pests and are directly related to vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue and zika. Plastics pose a risk to marine habitats and coastal communities when entering the ocean, thus, stunting the economic growth of Haiti’s ocean economy sectors, namely fishing and tourism.
About IDB Lab
IDB Lab is the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group, the leading source of development finance and know-how for improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The purpose of IDB Lab is to drive innovation for inclusion in the region, by mobilizing financing, knowledge, and connections to co-create solutions capable of transforming the lives of vulnerable populations affected by economic, social or environmental factors. Since 1993 IDB Lab has approved more than US $2 billion in projects deployed across 26 LAC countries. As of October 29, 2018, IDB Lab is the new identity of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).
About the IDB
The Inter-American Development Bank's mission is to improve lives. Founded in 1959, the IDB is one of the main sources of long-term financing for the economic, social and institutional development of Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also conducts state-of-the-art research projects and provides policy advice, technical assistance and training to public and private clients throughout the region.