This picture suggests that everything is neat and tidy on the corners but in fact rubbish is all over the place as dogs go through the plastic bags and then the rains wash the rubiish all over the place . We pay more than 300 pesos a month for the rubbish collection which is erratic at the best .

this is what most tourist see if the venture from the beach enclaves. My first impression after arriving in Santo Domingo was this squalor. The drive from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata exposed a country full of this. I did not see a single trash receptacles until I arrived in Puerto Plata. The beaches down south are covered in this same type of garbage

Don't worry, leo has a plan, he always does... i'ts all in his plan to become the donal trump of DR, by evicting everyone from from the slums because of inhabitable condition , to then purchasing them at rock bottom prices after leaving office and having favors pulled for a contract to rebuild, then reselling at stupid crazy prices..... leo is a "ONE STOP SHOP" (scout, realtor,contractor and hard monies guy) it's a win win situation for him. That's why he cares less about education, sanitation and the well being of his people..

Everything looks great from the metro thou especially when you go underground, from above it only looks like them houses need painting and everybody has a smile.

One word. Disgusting.

Why cannot the usa send some aid to help us down here. Where is the US Agency for International Development USAID?

Even dogs don't shit where they live. Consider this for one minute: What do you think would happen to your body, if all your bodily wastes were not properly and routinely expelled? You would be poisoned right?

We must deal with this problem as a priority because the poison is already affecting the thinking of this country. Otherwise how could we explain the tolerance for the mess that is already here?

No tire basuras right?

If I rememberr correctly this is on the approach for the airport/
Wait till one of those birds gets sucked into a propellor or a jet engine.

is a shame, but a reality there is trash allover DR St. And nobody do anything about it.

Ship all the garbage to the usa

Ladies and gentlemen.
There's a very effective solution to this mess. Simply make thrash a valuable commodity!

Glass bottles=@ $10.00per lbs.
Plastic " " "= @ $15.00 " " "
Plastic bags= @ $100.00." " "
Degradeables@ $5.00 " " "
"clean" dirt, rocks, & construction debris=@ 5.00per hundred lbs.

The city needs to set up "transfer stations" throughout the city and pay with "vouchers" redeemable at banks.
This system will : reduce unemployment, maintain our cities free of thrash which can be separated and reduced to manageable piles to be recycled or processed.
The city can sell recyclables to industry... Degradable, organic stuff, can be "digested" to extract methane gas.(simple process).This gas can be used for cooking, generating electricity, and automotive fuel.
The resulting (sterile) material makes a great natural fertilizer that can be sold to agribusinesses

Science always has an an answer. The "rub", is to implement it.

Well maybe if the Dominican Government realized that they could make money with recycled garbage they would be motivated to do something about this!

Why are we faulting the government for this? Yes, much of it is their fault, but have you ever walked the streets in Santo Dominigo or any of the cities in the Dominican Republic? People will walk right by a safacon and throw away their trash on the corner or my favorite right next to the safacon. Sure, the government can do a lot more in cleaning up the streets but when do we (the people) take responsibility for anything?

I think its time we start doing our part as well and stop blaming everything on the government, drogueros, and so on!

Mcruz
http://www.onecellular.com

@gmiller- Pollution and waste management are no doubt big issues in the Dominican Republic, although my friend guillermone seems to think it's not that bad. But in all fairness the Dominican Republic IS a developing nation. However even more significantly, it has NOTHING to do with "race" as you imply. There are people in the US that are just clueless and ignorant when it comes to disposing of trash. Some people simply don't have any idea of how environmentally insulting it is to throw trash on the ground. Some Dominicans may see nothing wrong with just throwing trash just anywhere but logically many others DO have a problem with that and would not do it. Granted education can help improve people perspective on things but a lot of times there is trash in the barrios simply because there is no system in place to remove trash so it simply piles up. Mainly the problem lies with the Government for not wisely using it's budget and giving waste management priority, not the people.

@mcruz- that's also a valid point. People have to value their own surroundings as well. But I think that often people get so used to the Government not doing anything they feel less motivated to take care of their surroundings. I think that if there was a consistent system in place that went to the barrios there would be much less garbage on the streets.

Ron thinks that recycling is cheap... If they pay out like you say, plus fuel/operating costs, it will need a gov grant, It would be great if they paid for each plastic bottle but someone wil have to keep funding the project

@xwill7.
The whole point here is to make it attractive for very-low income people to find a way to earn a living.
And at the same time to benefit us all by cleaning up our cities!
The sanitation department, and the system for efficiently collecting and maintaining our cities clean, does not work! Neither a campaign to "educate" people on the "evils" of littering, will result in eliminating the garbage problem.
The ONLY stragedy that'll motivate people to do the right thing is MONEY!!!.
When suddenly garbage = money, everyone will want to save it and NOT throw it all over the place!
Collecting garbage and dumping it in one huge land fill, will never work to resolve the on-going, never-ending, thrash quagmire and super nuisance we have to deal with today. Nor will the government have the MONEY to do so! It is up to us, the people, who cause the problem in the first place, to solve it!
Have you any idea how much energy can be extracted from organic matter!?
The methane gas alo

the methane extracted alone, can more than generate enough energy to power every car and public bus in our land! And that's only part of it. The left-overs from the processing, is nothing but a great fertilizer, full of carbon and nitrogen, vital for plant growth that can be had for next to nothing, to agriculture and whoever wants it!
Anyone that has a backyard can dig a trench and dump their organic matter into it..... As you go along and fill it, cover it with the same dirt excavated. wait a couple of months and you'll have the best dirt ever, to grow plants and trees!
Most people have no idea how valuable and useful garbage is!... alas!

i think the only answer to the problem is to pay more for removal and clean up projects. any thing worth haveing is worth paying for. i have been to the dr enough and seen the basuro. this is a problem that will deffinetly have to be dealt with and the sooner the better.

curios1 I do not think this is necessary in most of the capital ,,the problem is that very few people pay the garbage collection charge but still dump their rubbish in the street . One of my neighbours boasts she has paid nothing for 5 years .
In other cities , the price is definitely too low ,,about 1000 pesos per annum

BernardJeanPierre,
Yes there are some people in every country that trash the environment. However in the Dominican Republic, they are the majority. It will never be solved since most Dominicans do not see it as a problem, let alone a priority.
Re-cycling is not cost-effective unless the government places a bounty on packaging items. It will never happen here until the tourism industry is damaged beyond repair.
Most countries tax gas and electricity. This government subsidize it to the tune of 11% of GDP, while only spending 2% on education. Not hard to see where the people's priorities lie.

They will need the help of an American company.

worse the better seeing the DR support Western child sex abusers who pay of the australia justiice system but run now witnesses speaking out. Enjoy your millons and the other crud like you with your non english speaking child brides(post coitus must be boring) and filthy beaches that roast your wrinkles, sagging skin, and skin cancers (and hope the prostate surgeons stuff up your prostates so never again will your erections destroy a young childs mind,)

And ask your self thinking dominicans why does this bastard contantly trash your country? He does no work except pick up a few bottles and plant a few trees.

What a cracker RonEvan. Motivate people to do right is MONEY.Not in Australia and I am sure DR. MONEY pays off police;lawyer; judges. MONEY pays for wrong . MONEY pays for for cheap and underage sex and if you think your country has any hope (as did oil and natural resources rich Libyia with a great leader) think again.DR is dead and a refuge for refuse in the human form

Penny. It sure sounds like somebody screwed you up mentally and otherwise. But you may be right about the "refuge for refuse in the human form". We get thousands of graduates from US prisons coming back to do their dastardly deeds. We also get many more criminals jumping the border adding to others here, in the form of the military and govt "servants".
These govt officeholders, (as Roy Stone pointed out), would rather subsidize gas and electricity, spending 11% of GDP!

What our govt and many people on this board can't or won't see, due to their stupidity,
is that garbage has locked into it, vast energies that can and will resolve many a problem with one felt swoop!

Generally speaking, us Dominicans are an uneducated lot who can't see past today and the money they're so preoccupied in obtaining!
I pointed out the solution, but this went way over their collective, mindless heads. This is why only an incentive in the form of giving money in exchange for garbage, will work.

Maybe they should build an incinerator and burn the garbage to generate electricity. One thing that always amazes me about people in DR, they are fastidious about keeping their homes clean and neat but won't think ywice about throwing garbage in the streets.

Get the criminals in Prison to clean up the mess. Chain them together and make them work for 12 hours a day cleaning up trash. Let the citizens see the thugs being punished and cleaning up the blight at the same time

The rubbish only builds up in the streets when the Dominican traditional way of disposing of rubbish is not adhered to - dumping it in the rivers.

RonEvane,
Perhaps composting (and mulching) is not done in the Dominican Republic because the soil is already rich and rainfall plentiful? It is interesting to see leaves regularly raked into piles and burned, while bottles and cans are left where they were dropped.

Mcruz,

Education is the solution, but, to bad...... leonels government think spending money on education is a waste of money.

Really? What isn't a chaos in this country?

When I retire back to my beloved country, I will build a "methane digester" and show people how to extract gas from human and animal excrement that can be used as cooking fuel, automotive fuel, and burn it to generate electricity.
I will also plant and harvest oils from the Jatropha bush to refine it into biodiesel.This biodiesel is way better on engines than petrodiesel.
We need not be slaves to petroleum and its derivatives. We can do so much with what we have.
and make beaucoup $$$ in the process!

it will still take more money. and projects set in motion. and yes some will pay more than others.and some will think there entitled to pay nothing. hey life isn't fair. but if you want the problem solved you have got to do what you have got to do.

I'm sure at least 50-60% of this garbage could be recycled material or compost wastes. Garbage in DR has been a long desastrous problem, for the eye and the environment. It's the problem of a small country with a growing population. It's a long procedure which starts with education, but adults will have to be dealt with at the same time as the kids because it will become a pressing concern. It may be expensive at first but there must be, in all the $$$$$ projects that DR is getting from the international community (if the government can't deal with its responsabilities), some money to promote recycling and compost.

This Canadian visits the Dominican every year and wondered why such a beautiful place would allow this to happen. Recycling is a big part of our life here in Canada. My husband is in the Garbage/Recycle business and I hope we can bring this knowledge to the Dominican as this is where we wish to retire soon.

Ldypylot.
I am ashamed to say that most of us, Dominicans, have not been compelled by law, not to litter. Or made to understand what an eyesore this is for our cities, beaches, etc. and the fact that this results in less visitors,which equals less money to be made. Not to mention the health hazard it becomes. My guess is that this mess is partly due to cultural mentality, the I-don't-care, and it's not- my- problem, mind-set.
This is also due to a tradition of government's disregard for something, obviously considered by it, to be of low priority.
Why our government doesn't properly educate our children and lets our nation go to pot, I'll never understand.

RonEvane,
in a democracy, governments do not set priorities - they follow them. The people decide what's important, right or wrong, and the government responds to stay in power.
You are right - the cultural mentality is wrong. When the DR's biggest money earner tourism fails, and the government can no longer afford to subsidize electricity and gas, then maybe the people will wake up. However by then it will probably be too late.

its never to late. do things right so others see. it all starts with YOU !

curios1,
Have you ever walked along the cliff-face and little beaches of Santo Domingo? Have you looked into the rivers that flow into the Caribbean? Until you do you cannot appreciate the enormity of the problem. The reality is, most Dominicans don't care, and hence nor does the government. However not all of the rubbish remains on the Dominican coast. Only when other countries get sick of their beaches being trashed by Dominicans, with they put sanctions on this country. It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better. Yeah, it starts with me, but that's where it ends. Another crazy gringo!

yes i have roy. i have seen it right before my eyes. the only thing to do is pick it up,and put it in the right place. if you want your area clean start cleaning up. some one might join in,and maybe not. but there is only one way to find out.