Puerto Plata closes open-air landfill with new plant

President Luis Abinader led the inauguration this Friday of the Jaime Manuel Camps recycling plant and sanitary landfill in Puerto Plata, as reported by Dominican Today. The goal is direct: end the open-air solid waste disposal model that polluted the area for years.

For a destination competing for visitors in the north, this is more than a sanitation project. It is tourism infrastructure. Puerto Plata takes in cruises, beach hotels and a growing investment pipeline, and all of that rests on basic services the visitor does not see but does notice. Closing the open-air landfill is the kind of decision that protects the experience and, above all, the long-term value of the destination.

The read for the sector is clear: investing in waste management is investing in competitiveness. Anyone with a hotel or a project on the north coast should read this inauguration as a signal, public infrastructure starting to match private business. Day-to-day maintenance is still the missing piece, the part that truly decides whether the change holds. But the start is in place.