Two years ago, the Carrefour Feuilles (pronounced "kar-ah-fur fay") neighborhood was considered too dangerous for U.N. peacekeepers who were not protected by armored vehicles. And even today, a dozen or so Sri Lankan troops garrisoned here nervously stand watch behind heavy fortifications.

But Carrefour Fueilles has turned out to be perfect for an experimental solid waste processing and recycling plant set up by people who live in the neighborhood.

"We helped to create the conditions that made it possible for [U.N. peacekeepers] to come and protect us," said Patrick Massenat, the president of the group that opened the recycling plant in 2007.

The recycling initiative could also be key to ending Haiti's dangerous overreliance on charcoal for energy -- responsible for the loss of 98 percent of the nation's forests. The plant converts waste paper collected from the streets to hockey puck-sized "briquettes" that burn hotter than charcoal and cost half as much. It also employs 385 people, paying each about $4 per day, comparable to pay for government workers.

The United Nations has been helping neighborhood leaders organize and finance the recycling plant and other environmental initiatives in slums that were scenes of heavy gun battles between Brazilian and Jordanian troops and gangs that controlled much of the capital. Such jobs produce fuel for cooking, control flooding from denuded hillsides and grow desperately needed crops.

"Carrefour Feuilles is a poor neighborhood, populated neighborhood, with people in a precarious situation there, and before the project settled, it was known as a very violent neighborhood," said Eliana Nicolini, a Brazilian U.N. aid worker coordinating the recycling project. "So far, it is a small little setup."

What is most notable about these projects is that they do not fall under the jurisdiction of U.N. environmental experts or urban specialists. They are overseen by the community violence reduction arm of the 10,000-strong peacekeeping operation, MINUSTAH. The specialized unit, established in 2006, is most active in Port-au-Prince but has also mobilized efforts to build drainage canals and enhance fishing in rural areas.

Even though troops have largely quelled gang violence, political and social tensions in the poorest neighborhoods persist. But residents say putting people to work on environmental cleanup projects is making life better and having a noticeably calming affect.

MINUSTAH's community violence reduction, or CVR, section is involved in more than 30 projects nationwide and has a budget of $3.4 million. Projects are conceived by the Haitians themselves and launched after being vetted by not only engineers and agronomy experts but also sociologists and psychologists.

The Carrefour Feuilles initiative is arguably unique, holding the potential to transform the national economy and halt Haiti's most serious environmental problem, deforestation.

Here is how it works: Workers scour the neighborhood each morning to gather trash from bins they have set up and sometimes from households. Trucks haul refuse to a compound where recyclables are separated from the organic waste. Plastic, metal and glass are exported to recyclers in Taiwan, China, Canada and elsewhere, as there is no infrastructure in Haiti to process the materials. About 18 to 20 percent of the remaining refuse is hauled off to landfills.

6 Comments

1. 1. jburn 02:33 PM 11/10/09

   I can't help but wonder if growing industrial hemp would not also have an important impact on this island. It could be used to stabilize soil, provide food - from the seeds, shelter - from cloth (canvas), paper production, and eventually a heating source when burned. Perhaps the hemp crop could even be fertilized with sewage ....

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2. 2. jerryd 02:36 PM 11/10/09

   
   I sailed past Haiti and you can tell quite clearly the border with the DR because on the Haitian side it looks like a barren desert vs the DR side is a tropical forest. Yet it is the same island.
   
   What the need to do is start growing hemp for fuel as they would get 3 crops/yr and do far more farming as the people there actually eat dirt loafs because they have no food. They have the labor, land, all they need is seed and ag education.
   
   It would be a good place for micro loans for women to start more gardens, other businesses like building better stoves, solar ovens, windgenerators, etc all which would cut demand on the land for electricity. They are in the tradewinds where windgenerators are the most affordable electric source.

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3. 3. eco-steve 01:13 PM 11/12/09

   Maybe we should be looking at the charcoal industry so as to make it sustainable. The European Iron industry used charcoal for centuries. Trees were not felled, as only large branches were harvested, leaving the tree to regrow its missing branches fast. (pruning trees stimulates growth). Haïti lacks proper forest management. Perhaps with these waste-paper briquettes, trees will have the chance to regrow under good management.

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4. 4. cecilgrass 11:58 AM 8/2/10

   Sounds very interesting, I had no idea that Haiti had lost so much of it's forest. Interesting how easy it is to take for granted something like recycling. I don't even give a thought anymore, I just have my <a href="http://www.opsus.com/">paper shredding</a> done by http://www.opsus.com.
   

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5. 5. gingersanders2 01:49 PM 8/7/12

   Thanks for the post. This sounds like a great idea to help fix Haiti's reliance on charcoal. Just imagine what could happen if <a href="http://www.papershredding.com">paper shredding</a> could replace charcoal in other nations!

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6. 6. gingersanders2 01:49 PM 8/7/12

   Thanks for the post. This sounds like a great idea to help fix Haiti's reliance on charcoal. Just imagine what could happen if <a href="http://www.papershredding.com">paper shredding</a> could replace charcoal in other nations!

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