Thirteen years after the Haitian government signed a decree outlawing all forms of polystyrene across the country, the nation’s leading grassroots climate movement is demanding that officials finally put the long-ignored policy into action, with a planned national mobilization next week to push for change.
Alternatiba Haiti, the National Citizens’ Climate Movement, brought together 52 representatives — 24 women and 28 men from 23 local movement chapters and four partner civil society organizations — for the group’s first 2026 National Coordination meeting, held in the northeastern city of Ouanaminthe from July 3 to 5. Over three days of deliberations, delegates assessed Haiti’s overlapping socio-economic, political and environmental crises, reviewed progress and challenges from local chapter work across the country, completed training in peaceful direct action tactics, and finalized plans for the July 10 national mobilization.
The date marks exactly 13 years since the Haitian administration approved the 2013 decree banning the production, importation, sale and use of all forms of polystyrene, more commonly known as Styrofoam. To date, no consecutive government has taken meaningful steps to enforce the regulation, leaving the country grappling with a growing waste crisis that activists say amplifies the nation’s already extreme vulnerability to climate disasters.
Activists point to widespread polystyrene and plastic waste clogging the country’s ravines, river channels and drainage infrastructure, which worsens seasonal flooding that destroys homes, displaces communities and disrupts livelihoods annually. Beyond flood risk, uncollected polystyrene waste also poses a growing threat to public health across Haiti’s most underserved communities, movement leaders emphasized.
Framing environmental action as core to public health, intergenerational justice and equitable development, Alternatiba Haiti is calling for the immediate, unconditional enforcement of the 2013 polystyrene ban. The movement is also pushing for targeted government measures to support the adoption and scaling of affordable, eco-friendly alternative packaging and materials for local businesses.
The group has issued a national call to action, inviting all Haitian citizens, civil society organizations and public institutions to join the July 10 mobilization to demand policy compliance and urgent environmental protection. Operating through a network of 40 local chapters across the country, Alternatiba Haiti says it will continue leading a broader movement for alternative, people-centered development rooted in climate justice, government transparency, grassroots participation and respect for Haitian communities’ rights.
In a statement following the coordination meeting, the movement reaffirmed its core message: “No development without security, no environmental protection without political will, and no sustainable future without respect for the law” — uniting under the rallying cry, “Let’s change the system, not the climate!”