After two months of preparing ourselves for a new place, we started our second project in Rincon del Mar in August 2021.
Already in July, two Plasticaware members visited Rincon del Mar to analyse the situation and get the approval from the local community for further activities. We would like to mention again that Plasticaware aims to empower and encourage the local communities to fight plastic pollution, therefore it is essential that we have a lot of people on board.
We got the approval, went back to Medellin and focused on the last preparation tasks before the project started officially.
Luckily, Sharon from Switzerland was in Colombia to strengthen the team on-site when the second project started. The four Plasticaware members went with all the equipment needed for two months from Medellin to Rincon del Mar (Sucre). On our first visit, we met Daniele, the founder of the group titanes ecologicos de rincon del mar. He introduced us to many companies on site that are helping the environment in different areas. The vision of a shared work and thus better quality of life through a more beautiful environment raised everyone’s motivation. All together, we decided on the Motto “Rincon limpio, mas bonito” (A cleaner Rincon is a more beautiful Rincon).
In the first week, meeting after meeting took place. Socialisation of the project is key in these communities. With this, we assured that everyone is working hand in hand as we wanted to form strong alliances for a better outcome and a sustainable change.
Being there, we learned about the endangered Mangroves and wanted to learn more about the importance of this wonder of nature. In Rincon, they already recognised the significance of the trees and the consequences of their destruction for the environment (find out WHY in this video). Thus, on one hand they started reforestration and the mangroves are coming back again. On the other hand, many members of the community don’t have this knowledge and throw garbage into the mangroves which destroys the great work that is actually done to protect them.
During the first month we
- got in touch with the already existing groups such as the Titanes, Vivact and Mundo Verde
- organised 5 beach and mangrove clean-ups
- organised 6 movie nights that took place every wednesday, where kids could join if they collect 12 plastic bags to pay for the enterance. We collected around 2,000 plastic bags per movie night, more than 10,000 in total.
- visited over 400 houses to educate the residents about the recycling system etc
- certificated 15 plastic-heroes
- organised different workshops about the three 3R’s (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)
We will keep you posted on our achievements in September. Stay tuned 🙂
