- Title: 'Trying to survive': Scrap metal recycling brings cash in post-earthquake Haiti
- Date: 24th August 2021
- Summary: LES CAYES, HAITI (AUGUST 23, 2021) (REUTERS) DJEDSON HYPOLITE WALKING THROUGH RUBBLE / COLLECTING COILED SEVERED ELECTRICAL WIRES AT A COLLAPSED HOME / MACHINERY IN BACKGROUND HYPOLITE PLACING COILED ELECTRICAL CABLES IN BAG HYPOLITE COLLECTING COILED ELECTRICAL WIRES (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) DJEDSON HYPOLITE, WHO COLLECTS COILED SEVERED ELECTRICAL WIRES, SAYING: ''So, the earthquake destroyed our house. Now, I am living at the public market 'Marche Jeudi.' I am looking for scrap metal to sell to give my mother money to buy stuff to cook and feed us." HEAVY MACHINERY MOVING RUBBLE CHILDREN LOOKING ON VARIOUS OF HYPOLITE AND COLLEAGUES LOOKING ON HYPOLITE CARRYING SCRAP METAL (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) DJEDSON HYPOLITE, WHO COLLECTS COILED SEVERED ELECTRICAL WIRES, SAYING: ''I was walking in the street and I saw the machines going in. I followed them and saw they pulled out rubble." LES CAYES, HAITI (RECENT - AUGUST 18, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HAITIANS COLLECTING RUBBLE AND SCRAP METAL HEAVY MACHINERY BEING USED TO CLEAR RUBBLE FROM COLLAPSED HOME VARIOUS OF HAITIANS LOOKING FOR BITS OF SCRAP METAL IN RUBBLE LES CAYES, HAITI (AUGUST 23, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) HOLMES GERMAIN, OWNER OF A DOWNTOWN RECYCLING ENTERPRISE, SAYING: "After the earthquake, we found the merchandise in abundance." COLLECTORS PUSHING IRON IN WAGON VARIOUS OF COLLECTORS CARRYING SCRAP METAL, TO PLACE IT INTO TRUCK TO TAKE TO RECYCLING COMPANY TWISTED METAL ON SIDE OF ROAD VARIOUS OF METAL BEING PLACED INTO TRUCK (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) HOLMES GERMAIN, OWNER OF A DOWNTOWN RECYCLING ENTERPRISE, SAYING: ''But before the earthquake, we could not find it easily like that." COLLECTORS WEIGHING IRON VARIOUS OF TWISTED METAL TWISTED METAL / TRUCK WEIGHT NEXT TO TWISTED METAL
- Embargoed: 7th September 2021 17:11
- Keywords: Haiti Les Cayes earthquake metal rubble
- Location: LES CAYES, HAITI
- City: LES CAYES, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Topics: Health/Medicine,South America / Central America,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001ERN4E9Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:After a devastating earthquake levelled tens of thousands of homes in Haiti, some residents have started to pick up the pieces, collecting scrap metal from the rubble to resell and make ends meet.
Djedson Hypolite deftly coiled severed electrical wires at a collapsed home in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes on Monday (August 23) afternoon, as he scanned the debris for more metal.
The 13-year-old boy and his brother Dawenson, 9, have been extracting and reselling wires and cables found in the wreckage since the quake struck on Aug. 14, killing over 2,000 people across Haiti.
''So, the earthquake destroyed our house. Now, I am living at the public market 'Marche Jeudi.' I am looking for scrap metal to sell to give my mother money to buy stuff to cook and feed us," said Hypolite, explaining the two brothers earned about $5 a day collecting the electrical wires.
The earthquake occurred just over a month after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, deepening the political turmoil in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, where violent gangs run rampant, hunger is on the rise and healthcare services were already buckling under COVID-19.
Though official efforts to clear the rubble have been slow in hard-hit cities and towns across Haiti's southern peninsula, scrap metal collectors and recycling enterprises are busier than ever, providing much-needed cash for hundreds of residents, and extra hands for clearing debris.
All across the city, residents carried the scrap metal to collection sites on motorbikes, pickup trucks, or balanced on top of their heads. Those who could shoulder the weight hauled aluminium sheeting, which netted 25 Haitian gourdes (25 cents) per kilo, or iron rods, which went for 10 gourdes at a recycling collection site in downtown Les Cayes.
Holmes Germain, the owner of a downtown recycling enterprise, said the amount of iron and aluminium he was receiving had doubled or tripled since the quake.
Trucks flowed in and out of his scrapyard, taking loads of twisted iron, warped aluminium sheeting, tangled wires and the occasional battery to the capital city, Port-au-Prince. From there, he said, it was recycled for domestic use, or packed onto shipping containers and exported.
Germain sees his business as both an economic opportunity and a public service at this time of crisis.
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