After 65 years of socialist revolution, Cubans have been reduced to picking through dumpsters to find food or items they can sell to feed themselves and their families. Once a prosperous and self-sufficient nation, Cuba is now a third-world country on a constant decline. This is socialism in action.
‘I do this so my daughter can eat’: The stories of Cuba’s ‘dumpster divers’
There is no shortage of Cubans who pick through garbage as a means to survive amid shortages. The “dumpster divers,” as those who rummage through landfills are popularly called, resort to this to alleviate the precarious situation in which they live.
Several stories collected in a report by the EFE agency indicate this practice has increased in Cuba amid food shortages and low wages.
Rafael, a 56-year-old Cuban residing in Centro Habana, told the media that raw materials, plastic bottles, and cans from the waste to sell to private and state-owned companies is not the only items he recovers.
He also gets food from there, as evidenced by a plastic bag with four loaves of bread that he obtained from the garbage.
A decade ago, he left his job as a cow milker in Sancti Spíritus and settled in Havana, where he earns his income in this way.
In a month, he can earn up to 2,000 Cuban pesos, a stipend higher than pensions for retirees. With that amount, he can travel to his province and give money to his 27-year-old daughter. “I do this so that she can eat,” he said.
Similar to this is the story of Rafael, 62 years old. A veteran of the war in Angola, the man decided to start collecting garbage since the pandemic because “things are on fire.”
Jorge, 54, also looks for raw materials to resell. Last month, he said, he reached 8,000 pesos, compensating for his meager salary as a railway system worker.
In Havana, where landfills overflow on almost every block, dumpster divers abound.
Living off garbage is a growing option in Cuba. Low wages and inadequate pensions contrast with the high prices of essential products, causing men, women, and the elderly to be everywhere with sacks or bags full of empty cans or plastics that they hope to sell as raw materials.
Last year, a 66-year-old woman recounted that, with a pension of 1,028 pesos, her only alternative is to search for empty cans among the containers to get some money from them.