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The death and destruction in Haiti are beyond are comprehension. We say that, we know that, but it truly is.

This is a nation with a standard of living that was unimaginably poor and primitive even before the devastating earthquake struck the country last month. Now the small Caribbean nation is dealing with tens of thousands of dead. But it also is dealing with a staggering amount of collapsed buildings, in part because the country couldn't afford to build or reinforce them as more earthquake-resistant. Communication, security, leadership -- they are all starkly absent because they weren't that strong to begin with.

America and the rest of the world are making a noble effort to help, glitches and all. And the waste and recycling industries have been doing what they can as well too. For bigger companies like Waste Management and Republic Services, a lot of what can be done at this point is to be sensitive to the needs of their Haitian employees.

The priority now is of course as it should be -- on human life. But as we know from other disasters, there is also an enormous cleanup job waiting of the mountains of debris that must be addressed. Like most other issues in the wake of this tragedy, the Haitians will not be able to handle it themselves. U.S. solid waste companies such as Republic already have asked what it can do, and no doubt the North American waste and recycling industries will pitch in and help with that cleanup project when the time is appropriate.

Every disaster cleanup is different. The World Trade Center attack generated a record amount of debris because of the size of the buildings, and it happened in one of the mostly densely built areas on earth. But Haiti is a small island and a country with no infrastructure. The challenges are sure to be immense. There are certain to be a range of other environmental and safety issues.

It is good to witness industries and countries volunteering to help in times of desperate need. I hope somehow through this Haiti can eventually be made a stronger country -- economically, socially, environmentally.

Allan Gerlat is editor of Waste & Recycling News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.

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