(Francais) en construction...

In Costa Rica, recycling is “asunto de mujeres”, the business of women.  This is true not only because little investment and mobility is required to start up a recycling activity - still a part of the informal economy - but more importantly because, in their small communities, women are the most acutely aware of the damage unmanaged waste is doing to the rivers, farms, beaches and forests, as well as to her family’s health.

Most of the time the communities where the RecyclArt project works are in isolated, tourism-intensive areas, where the necessary infrastructures are lacking for even minimal waste management.

So typically, women group together to tackle the problem. They start educating their communities about protecting the environment through recycling, with regular river and beach cleanups, talks in schools, environmental fairs, the civic holidays, the scouts, anything that works.

While providing subsistence to dozens of village women, the rural recycling center is also a powerful vector of environmental education.

Photograph:  training a group of teens in San Antonio

At home, after recycling hours, the women are free to work their miracle. After a careful preparation of the materials, they are ready to transform the pull-tabs they have collected and the donated fabric into delightfully original accessories: necklaces, bracelets, earrings, belts, hand-bags.

These jewels help to demonstrate to their community that “no es basura”, Spanish for not being considered waste, and therefore not to be thrown into the street, river, or beach.

Turning pull-tabs into
beautiful fashion accessoires

The purchase of these articles contributes to generating alternative revenues for groups of women recyclers who devote both their creative imagination and their labor in recuperating these materials, to preserving the environment.

The proceeds are used to generate and strengthen environmental education projects through community recycling in rural villages in Costa Rica.

If you like RecyclArt's recycling approach and re-purposing efforts, please let us know so we can increase our recycling and cleaning up the panet approach. You can do this by Liking our website, connecting to our Facebook Page and Subscribe to our newsletter, by filling in the form on the bottom of this website.