While some are describing the recycling project in the Rafey landfill as a failure because of the precarious work conditions of the Dominican and Haitian "garbage divers" or recyclers, the municipal authorities have defended the initiative, saying that it is a long-term project, as reported in Diario Libre. Some five months ago the local city council inaugurated what they described as the country's first facility for dealing with recyclable materials in Rafey with the goal of gradually reducing the number of recyclers. Nevertheless, the facility that was to be co-administered by the recyclers themselves is still closed down, supposedly because of a lack of resources to keep it working.

An advisor to the city government of Santiago, Nelson Carela, said that the recycling plant will be open soon with the objective of improving the working conditions of the recyclers and reducing their number, which is currently more than 750, mostly Haitians who live all crowded together in hostels. "We can have this facility working with the support of Xunta de Galicia and the members of the Chamber of Commerce and Production of Santiago," said Carela. In the first stage, the recycling plant will be operated by 10 recyclers, who will leave off working in the landfill (garbage dump), and this number will go up as the project is expanded. A former city councilman and executive director of the commission working on the West Santiago project, Hipolito Martinez, said that the projects started by the municipal authorities for recycling the garbage have failed due to a lack of municipal planning.

"Now we have more recyclers and more disorder in the process of collecting the refuse in the Rafey landfill," he said. At present, this attempt to reduce the number of recyclers at Rafey comes from organizations sponsored by national and international organizations.

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