Project Launch:

La Colonia is small rural village with 200 residents and limited employment opportunities. There is no governmental support for a trash or recycling system in the country, leaving it up to communities to take care of their environment. La Colonia has a recycling group, which consists of six women and one man. Although they do not receive any financial compensation, the recycling group eagerly helps clean the community. The community has a recycling center were many community members bring their trash and recyclables, but since they do not know how to properly sort the trash from recyclables, they dump everything together. Once a week, the recycling group gets together and separates all of the recyclables, and every three months, a recycling company picks up the recycling. Overall, there is a lack of knowledge throughout the community on how to properly recycle.

 

This project will provide individual recycling bins to every house in the community to help educate and encourage recycling. Each home will receive four bins; a bin for paper and cardboard, aluminum, plastic, and glass. Community members will participate in workshops to learn about the benefits of recycling and how to properly recycle. This project will engage the community youth by bringing them on a field trip to the recycling center and by holding monthly community cleanups. Community members will also make artisanal crafts out of recycled goods to sell to tourists.

 

Project Update

To meet the requirements of the Health Department and Department of Education, the grants funds will be used to inclose the recycling shed with a new floor and walls to prevent any animals and bugs. Furthermore, the local government has stepped forward and is helping to revamp the recycling shed as well. Community members have been volunteering once a week to help separate trash and recycling, and are excited to get their children involved. The community received an additional World Connect grant, which will be used to purchase recycling bins for households and local businesses, and to implement a community-wide recycling program with the recycling committee and elementary school.

 

Testimonials

"To see the children working on this project is very beautiful... It is great to see them think before throwing something in the street and instead put it in the trash can." - Project Participant 

 

"To see the school, the local government, and different committees in the community work together to keep our air clean and our streets free of garbage is incredible." - Project Participant