‘Plastic pollution hotspots’ spawn a public health crisis across Latin America

A study identifies seven Latin American countries, including Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, as plastic pollution hotspots where imports of hard-to-recycle plastic overwhelm weak waste systems. Nicaragua's plastic waste imports rose 394 percent between 2015 and 2022, and Paraguay's rose 234 percent, researchers found.

Roughly 17,000 metric tons of plastic waste reaches open dumpsites across the region daily, and nearly 40 million people lack basic waste collection, according to one consultant cited in the research. Much of the imported plastic ends up burned, releasing dioxins, or dumped near waterways where it blocks drains and breeds mosquitoes carrying dengue and malaria.

The former U.N. special rapporteur on toxics described the Dominican Republic as facing a plastic catastrophe during a recent visit, citing polystyrene as a particular breeding ground for disease-carrying insects. Researchers say the people most affected already lack sanitation infrastructure and live in flood-prone areas near dumping and burning sites.

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