RECYCLING

The Plastics Recycling Program that Los Amigos first put in place in 2008 continues to gain momentum. What began as purely a school-based program covering only La Peņita has now been expanded to the community at large and the coverage area has been expanded to include Guayabitos and Los Ayala. And now, individuals can purchase their own recycling basket at the tianguis every Thursday. We are also in discussions with the municipality to see how we can work together on the program. Our goal continues to be to have sufficient volume from our sales of recycled plastics to cover our ongoing expenses.

Photos: Courtesy of Ken Snyder - click here for more photos

Background

The plastics recycling program that Los Amigos put in place, in cooperation with the Delegaciķn Municipal, was based on a program that has existed in Chacala for some time. The La Peņita program was launched on April 10th, 2008 with the involvement of eight school and was expanded shortly thereafter to include all fourteen schools in La Peņita and La Colonia. Presently, there are 4,000 students that participate in this program.

Students are asked to bring their plastics to school each Thursday. Los Amigos then arranges for the plastics to be picked up each Friday.

Schools are encouraged to use this as an opportunity for you to talk to their students about the importance of recycling and for your students to talk to their parents about this critical issue. A Recognition Event was held on January 19, 2009 to thank the Directors of the schools in La Peņita and La Colonia for their help in making the first phase of the program a success. To view photos of this event, please click here ģ.

Also in 2009, the program was expanded to the general community. Recycling baskets, with a Los Amigo logo, were placed in locations in the community and drop off sites for larger amounts of plastics were established across the community. A weekly door to door plastics pickup was established in the residential areas of La Peņita and arrangements have been made with the Guayabitos Hotel Association to collect from the hotels in Guyabitos. We have also established our own compacting facility to compact the plastics in preparation for sale.

To have additional questions about the recycling program answered, please email recycling@losamigosdelapenita.com

Recycling Plant in Tepic - photo: Ken Snyder