**5. Waste management, environmental pollution, microplastics and loss of biodiversity in Port-au-Prince**

#### **5.1 The issue of solid waste in Port-au-Prince**

Urban cleanliness and its variations over time reflect the aspects of each civilization, [ … ], the capacity of societies to legislate, to mobilize techniques and to organize the complexity of urban services [80]. In developing countries (DCs), however, the issue of urban cleanliness a priori highlights the weakness of urban managers and institutions in terms of their capacity to manage the growing and very heterogeneous flow of waste produced [81].

In Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, solid waste management is practiced in a context of rapid population growth and extreme urban poverty [82]. Indeed, urban cleanliness and its variations over time highlight a clear discrepancy between the objective of the waste management service (making and maintaining the city clean) and the realities on the ground. The combination of the low rate of garbage collection and high human densities accentuates unsanitary conditions in the city and represents a risk factor not only in terms of human health but also of the environment. Also, vacant spaces, voids in the urban fabric of Port-au-Prince very quickly become public landfill spaces [81]. In this urban space, notes Lacour [83], urban cleanliness is established in the mix of most urban waste management systems where state and private services coexist, as well as public funds and international funding, through development organizations. In addition, the negative impacts (pollution, nuisance, proliferation of rodents and insects, risk of disease, etc.), linked to the size, nature, and unsuitable management methods of organic waste (landfill with other categories, combustion, etc.), are generally very pronounced [83].

The characteristics of the waste management system in Haiti have been defined as follows [84]:


*Microplastics and Environmental Health: Assessing Environmental Hazards in Haiti DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98371*

or private (urban "medium standing" and "high standing") collection, waste disposal in non-dedicated spaces (vacant lots, gullies, etc.) spontaneously transformed into wild dumps.

