A group of self-starting projects have joined forces to develop the Reciclamos initiative, a plastics recycling day, which will be converted into eco-wood and then manufactured into benches for the city.

Reciclamos is an initiative organized by La Mina/Embajada Rebirth Tercer Paraíso, Artecorte/Cuba Ocho, Mandao, Estudio 50 and CNA Atres, which aims to collect as much plastic as possible in Havana on Fridays in June.

As they explain, this means less plastic in our city and our coasts.

"All plastic works, as long as it doesn't have any toxic residue. It can be containers, broken pieces, knobs of any kind, nylon bags, shrink-wrap, and others," indicated a note from the coordination team.

The plastic collected at the headquarters of Estudio 50, in the municipality of Cerro, will be shredded by the grinder of the non-agricultural cooperative Atres, a pioneer in the shredding of plastic and its subsequent use, which will process the shredded plastic to turn it into the so-called ecomadera, a solution that consists of the combination of several residuals to replace wood.

As part of this action, a contest was launched to stimulate participation; fundamentally, to encourage the cycling community and beauty salons to be part of Reciclamos.

This action is part of the Cuba Ocho Wheel Festival, which promotes bicycle culture and sustainable mobility in the city. Social networks have been the fundamental platform to convene, promote and update, using the #ReciclamosEnCuba.

Apropos World Environment Day, each of the participating projects planned an action to celebrate that date. "We understood that it was a mutual concern and the most efficient way was to carry out this great joint action, thus creating a great community of plastic recycling in the city. The communion of efforts, resources and enthusiasm has been one of the main results," the statement said.

At the same time, they considered that this "action is vital to raise awareness and educate the population, businesses, organizations and others on the importance of the 3Rs of recycling: reduce, reuse and recycle".

The idea of turning the eco-wood resulting from plastic recovery into benches for Havana is inspired by the international project 100 panchine per Roma, convened by Rebirth Forum Roma 2019.

How do they do it?

Anyone interested can participate by collecting as much plastic as possible, which must be rinsed and free of toxic waste and delivering it on Fridays in June at Estudio 50.

They can also write to the Telegram group BiciSolidaria for participating cyclists to transfer it. Another modality is to take the collected plastic to VéloCuba's headquarters at Prado #20, any day of the week between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

To compete, people must register at Estudio 50 with a minimum delivery of 10 pounds of plastic and each subsequent delivery after registration must also have a minimum of the same weight.

The following categories are eligible: natural person, institution or enterprise; cyclist (all plastic must be delivered by bicycle and cyclists earn extra points if they collect plastic from beauty salons) and beauty salon, which will have extra points if they contact cyclists for the delivery of plastic.

Each contestant will be given a ballot made of recycled paper by Ciclo Ecopapel, where the amount of plastic delivered each time will be noted. Each ballot will be accompanied by an envelope of Tilan edible plant seeds to sow at home, and at the end of the contest, the ballot can be cut out and transformed into a seedbed.

The prizes will be for category 1: bag with gifts from ArteCorte, Mandao, FANJ, Tercer Paraíso Cuba, Havana Club, and Tilán; category 2: bicycles donated by Cuba Ocho and bag with gifts from Havana Club, and Tilán (1st and 2nd place) and category 3: bag with gifts from Havana Club and Tilán (1st and 2nd place).

Numerous enterprises and institutions interested in this common goal have joined as collaborators among them, Ciclo Ecopapel, Tilán, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Citykleta, VèloCuba, Rutabikes, Bici Aventura, Deshidratados Habana, Havana Club, Office of the Historian of the City of Havana and the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation.

Source: Havana Tribune