In the case of Georgetown, most waste that until that point became collected in the region used to be discarded at Mandela dumpsite, located next to Le Repentir cemetery. The site was described as a ticking time bomb that had long exceeded its capacities. Since the early 1990s, it had accumulated large amounts of waste that produced toxic stench and regular fire outbreaks, caused by the spontaneous combustion of organic material. This not only affected nearby residents and environmental quality, but also the cemetery, which was increasingly taken over by overflowing garbage. [3][4][5][6] Communities around the dumpsite moreover complained about permanent smoke and resulting respiratory and skin ailments [7]. The dump was frequented waste pickers who had often build homes in the area and bought vehicles to rummage the garbage but remained widely stigmatized. According to a 2009 media report, waste pickers were repeatedly blamed to have started blazes at the dumpsite but vehemently denied these allegations. The municipality had demanded them to pay a little fee for recycling at the site and promised to give them uniforms, but some did not end up paying. The management of the dumpsite then requested the local administration to provide more human resources to police the site. However, soon after, Georgetown’s mayor called the dump a “total environmental disaster” and announced its closure for the year 2010. [1][3]

When the closure became delayed in 2010, social activist Mark Benschop attempted several times to block the entrance street with a vehicle to prevail incoming trucks from continuing to dump the garbage. Benschop had called up residents to join the protest and pointed to environmental pollution and mismanagement at the site. The activist became temporarily arrested and charged with obstruction together with a journalist and, to the media, announced a hunger strike, before becoming released on a symbolic bail. [5][7][8]

With the help of IDB funds and the national government, the new Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill became inaugurated in 2011. As the country’s only sanitary landfill, it has since then served as the principal site of waste disposal for the Georgetown urban area and the entire Region Four of Guyana. As of 2018, it received a total of 500 tons of waste daily – about half of the country’s solid waste. It initially became operated by the companies BK International and Puran Brothers Disposal Services and became protected, which initially implied that no waste pickers could enter the site. [2][5][6][9][10]

As the environmental impact assessment of the solid waste management plan found that the closure of Mandela dump would severely impact waste pickers' livelihoods, IDB, however, obligated the local government to find a solution for displaced waste pickers, either by compensation or relocation and the improvement of conditions. Hence, a formalization plan was developed, which led to the contracting of a few. The remaining informal workers were granted continued access to the new site, which was equipped with a wash and change area, a canteen and lockers. They were also given safety gear and bicycles and received capacity-building workshops and assistance in obtaining official documents such as ID cards, passports and birth certificates. Also, regular medical visits were announced, along with anti-littering campaigns in Georgetown to raise awareness for recycling in the wider public. [1][2][10][11][12][13] As of 2019, a total of 69 waste pickers were informally working at the site, all of them also formerly active at Mandela dump. In addition, 30 workers are contracted by the landfill. [14]

Local authorities have praised the improvements through Haags Bosch landfill, as it should receive a proper waste separation and leachate treatment system. However, as of 2017, this has only partly become a reality, as substantial technical features were still being constructed or restored after fires. [4][15][16] In fact, like Mandela dump in the past, also Haags Bosch landfill has suffered from regular fire outbreaks, which are aggravated by Guyana’s increasingly prolonged dry seasons. At the end of 2015, several sectors of the site were taken over by blazes and smoke for weeks, supposedly caused by the operators’ disregard of fire prevention measures. Guyana’s Ministry of Communities publicly blamed BK and Puran Brothers for poor management techniques and inadequate security measures. The contract of BK became canceled due to non-compliance with the operational management plan and the environmental requirements, and Puran was handed over a new contract for the management of the site for the following year. Later, Waste Solutions Landfill – a joint venture between Puran and Cevons Waste Management – became contracted. [9][10][17][18][19][20]

In 2016, the landfill management suddenly denied waste pickers access to the landfill, saying it still showed signs of fire. Waste pickers protested outside the site, chanting “we want work!” [18]. Speaking to the media, they stated that they still had permission from the government to search for recyclables and regarded the act as a “deliberate attempt to tamper with their livelihoods” [17]. They felt victimized and blamed for supposedly having caused the fires, and expressed their anger that employed waste workers were still allowed to enter the site and had now started to collect bottles and metals [17][18]. As fires and smoke continued to occur on a regular basis in 2016, also residents near Haags Busch landfill increasingly expressed their outrage and pointed to the adverse health impacts [21]. Due to the fires and following recovery works, the landfill became temporarily closed, leading to the reopening of the Mandela area as a waste disposal site and new waste picker activity there. By 2017, Haags Busch landfill was largely restored and the management announced its reopening as a sanitary landfill. [16][20][22].

Georgetown also continued to be regularly plagued by garbage woes. A 2013 article in the Guyana Chronicle stated that over the past few years, “solid waste management in the city has deteriorated, to the point where almost every street is lined with waste and their corners decorated with a garbage heap” [13], which has proven particularly problematic in times of flood. In several districts, “waste is not collected, forcing residents to burn or bury it, or dump it in vacant lots, along roadsides, and in drainage canals” [13], leading among others to the pollution of groundwater through leachate. There seem to be multiple possible explanations for this situation: the general inefficiency of collection services, possibly corrupt practices, the indifference of the private sector and households when it comes to littering, and ongoing disputes between the municipality and garbage collectors over delayed payments. Cevons and Puran – the two largest contracted collectors - are regularly on strike because of outstanding payments, leading to garbage mountains piling up in the capital’s main streets. The mayor explained the delays in payments with shortages in the municipal budget. [13][23] The municipality also lamented that citizens were still not used to separate waste and that enterprises frequently mix recyclables with hazardous waste, posing ongoing challenges for waste management at the landfill. Particularly alarming is the amount of plastic waste stemming from soft drinks and water bottles. [4]

This story has repeated itself over the last years, with streets of Georgetown frequently becoming taken over by household and enterprise garbage and waste collectors pulling their services back to demand payments and make the central government intervene, as for example also in 2017 and 2018 [24][25][26]. City residents moreover stated that with the accumulation of trash – which had become even more problematic since smaller garbage collectors had been contracted – also frauds have increased: some persons would falsely present themselves as waste workers and charge residents for the disposal of garbage, but often the quadruple rates and without ever picking it up [27]. As of 2019, the conflict between the municipality and the contracted garbage collectors persisted, and, with that, garbage continued to pile up in several parts of the city [28].

With regard to the situation of waste pickers, Guyana’s authorities and the Regional Initiative for Inclusive Recycling (IRR) – a civil society platform linked to IDB and the international corporate sector – publicly presented the inclusion of waste pickers at the new landfill as a success story. For example in 2014, government representatives noted that waste pickers, over the past years, had gained much dignity and legitimacy due to the improved conditions and the wider recognition of their work in the Guyanese public. While formerly considered as “junkies”, they would now be acknowledged for their environmental contribution to recycling and limiting toxic contamination. [1][4][15]

Particularly emphasized was the formation of the “Guyana Total (GT) Recyclers Co-operative Society”, a cooperative of waste pickers from the Haags Bosch landfill [1][29]. An IDB representative praised the work of GT recyclers as “significant achievement under the Georgetown Solid Waste Management Programme supported by IDB funding” [1]. IRR stressed that the collective organizing of waste pickers has led to the empowerment of a formerly vulnerable group. In video reports, it shows that waste pickers were provided with capacity-building workshops and made familiar with the idea of organizing collectively, as opposed to working individually, as a means to voice demands and obtain fairer prices for recyclables. Even a leader of the Brazilian waste pickers movement was invited to speak to the group. To strengthen collective identity and self-worth of the group and give a positive image of waste pickers in the wider public, the group was also encouraged to participate in a march of Guyana’s annual cultural festival “Mashramani”, using costumes made from recycled material and making it to the newspaper front covers. Portrayed waste pickers overall expressed very positive feelings about these changes at Haags Bosch landfill. [11][12] These positive impacts on the waste picker community seem to have been widely documented by the donors until 2014, conceivably in order to prove the social responsibility of the project, whereas there is little information available about the advancing of the GT cooperative for the time after and about the situation of waste pickers who are not allowed to enter the landfill.

The other side of the coin is that some of the waste pickers at Haags Bosch landfill have been picking waste informally for over 25 years and continue doing so without any social protection. Picking and sorting is still done manually and under severe health risks. Accidents have also occurred at the new landfill and led to the death of two people [30]. Waste-picking is still a means of survival for many people in Haags Bosch, although some also report that they enjoyed the work and could make good money from it. In 2017, the Minister of Communities, after a visit at the landfill, publicly expressed concerns over the health of waste pickers. Demanding better washing facilities and monitoring at the site, she pointed to their precarious situation that puts their lives at risk and their valuable environmental contribution. [15][30]

At another link in the recycling chain, Guyana’s scrap metal dealers have recently struggled with government restrictions. In 2011, a ban on scrap metal trade was imposed after a resurgence of vandalism related public and private property [31]. Another ban on exports was imposed in June 2015 in order to make an audit but was further maintained in the following. This has left 1,500 people in the sector without work and source of income and led to street protests and mobilization by the Guyana Scrap Metal Association. In 2017 the government resumed scrap metal trade and announced new regulations and better monitoring in the sector. [32]

Haags Bosch landfill was opened in 2011 and replaced the inadequate Mandela dumpsite. It is conceptualized as a sanitary landfill, even though not all of its features have become realized and some of the cells became severely damaged by the 2015 fires. The landfill area of about 60 hectares should take all municipal waste as well as other solids, especially from Guyana’s Region Four (from Soesdyke to Mahaica) – in total, between 400 to 500 tons of garbage per day (numbers vary, but they are significantly above the initially planned ones). The new landfill has been funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of Guyana, which invested about US$ 18 million. It is currently run by the contractor Waste Solutions Landfill, a joint venture between Cevons Waste Management Inc and Puran Bros Disposal Service, which are also the city’s two largest garbage collectors. [6][9][10][16][22][23][30] The site is closed to outsiders, but as of 2019, a total 69 informal waste pickers were registered as informally working there, in addition to 30 contracted workers employed by the landfill management. [14][31]