WaMaHav

"Design and Social Acceptance of a More Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Waste Management System for Havana"

Cuban-German research project in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Yeniley Allegue Losada, Facultad de Economia, Universidad de La Habana, La Habana, Cuba. The project was financed by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD (funding code: 57378441), 2018.

The actual waste management system in Havana suffers from many deficiencies. The most pressing problem for Havana’s residents is the desolate waste collection situation. Waste is accumulating in most streets in Havana over two weeks and more before it is collected by the communal waste collecting services, the so-called "communales". The reasons for that are manifold. There are technical reasons like broken waste trucks which are not repaired in time and destroyed garbage containers which cannot be moved which have broken down because of age and exhaustion, so that they cannot be lifted off the ground for emptying by the garbage trucks. But there are also social or psychological reasons which are suspected to be based on the mentality of the residents on the one hand and of the public servants of the communales on the other. Especially in the poorer and more run-down areas of Havana, residents do not really seem to care for the garbage situation.

Garbage collection is not the only waste problem in Cuba. Another problem which endangers the environment, especially the soil and the groundwater, is the treatment and deposition of garbage after collection. The recovery of recyclable materials from the collected solid waste is common practice in Cuba but the treatment and final disposal of the rest of the solid waste is inappropriate and puts the environment in the neighbourhood of the landfills and the health of the population at risk.

Summing up, the waste situation in Havana regarding waste collection as well as waste treatment after collection is rather desolate. Responsible for this situation seem to be technical problems and the scarcity of resources on the one hand and psychological and mentality problems on the other.

The objectives of the research project "Design and social acceptance of a more efficient and environmentally friendly waste management system for Havana" to be conducted by Professor Allegue Losada and the research group of Professor Ahlheim are twofold: One objective is to design the outlines of a functioning waste collection system in Havana. The second objective is to highlight the psychological and attitudinal background of the waste situation in the mentality of the residential population and their willingness to contribute personally to a solution to this problem. For his purpose a Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) survey was conducted in Havana, where respective pre-tests have already been accomplished.

In the course of the WaMaHav project, the structure of the actual garbage management system in Havana was highlighted and the resulting incentives for all stakeholders were scrutinized. Respondents in CVM interviews were asked questions regarding their awareness of the problem, how they judge the threat to their personal health and to the environment in general accruing from the garbage heaps in the streets and where they see the responsibility for these problems. Then they were asked if they have ideas of their own how things could be improved and if they would be willing to contribute personally to a solution of the Garbage problem in their city. The results of the study were published in:

- Ahlheim, M., Becker, M., Losada Y.A., Trastl, H. (2019), Wasted! Resource recovery and waste management in Cuba, The International Journal of Cuban Studies (IJCS) vol.11/2, 147-173), DOI: 10.13169/intejcubastud.11.2.0147.