AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com

Often I have shared with you the different recycling programs available around Antigua Guatemala. There are many recycling approaches that people use in Guatemala. Interesting enough, at first glance it may seem that there are NO recycling programs or that Guatemalans don’t recycle; nothing could be farther away from the truth. However, we must admit that most Guatemalan recycle out of necessity rather than recycling because of their conscience.

Here are some of the recycling approaches we use in Guatemala.

Reuse things until they can not be used for anything else anymore. Here we can find paca clothing or second hand clothes recycled from the U.S.A.; reusing cornstalks for walls, fences, and other things; reusing recycled magazine for handicrafts; reusing discarded wheel rims as charcoal grills; reutilizing sawing machines as restaurant tables and the machines as antique decorations; recycling coffee burlap sacks as handicrafts. There are many more examples, but you can get an idea from the ones listed.

Private and Non-profit fully-developed Recycle Programs. The first one that comes to mind is the recycling of burnt restaurant oil to create biodiesel fuel thanks to the Biodiesel Project of Biopersathe first Recycling program of Antigua Guatemala. Of course, many business have implemented recycling bins, like the toneles (metal cans) found in Finca Filadelfia. Guatemala Green is also a non-profit project which focusing in recycling and proper disposal of hi-tech junk. However, before computers become junk, they can be reuse in schools and libraries where often is not necessary to have the latest technology; there’s a non-profit project for that. These are some of programs I have highlighted in past at AntiguaDailyPhoto.

Picking recycled material from trash and trash landfills. Last we have the informal recycling businesses that pick recycle materials for sale from the trash. This picking of recycle materials happens at the collecting stage, at an intermediate stage as shown above or directly at the trash landfill. This is quite possibly where the most recycling gets done in Guatemala. Recycled scrap metal is another lucrative recycling business that I know about here in Antigua Guatemala.

As you can see from some of the examples above, Guatemalans do recycle and do it in so many ways; I did forget to mention that recycling of paint buckets, one of our favorite recycling approaches. Click on the Guatemala Green series and Recycling to browse all of the results found in the archives of AntiguaDailyPhoto.

Green Recommendation: If you live in the U.S., Canada or Europe, make sure your government or medium or large corporations do NOT dump electronic waste or junk as donations on the “Third World.” If it is electronic junk produced in your country, make sure it is properly disposed or recycled in your country. Thanks!

These Guatemalan coffee-style satchels are perfect for coffee lovers… and they are ecological too since they’re made from recycled coffee sacks. Besides these Guatemalan morrales, the Spanish word for satchel, you can also find bags, purses, and backpacks made from the recycled coffee sacks.

Last time I talked about these recycled coffee satchel I received several inquiries about exporting these kind of bags to Europe, Canada and the United States. I wonder if I should look into since there seems to be a great appeal for them. What do you think? would you buy satchels, bags, purses or backpacks made from this recycled material?

A few weeks ago I introduced you to the recycling truck of La Antigua Guatemala and hi-lighted the fact that it runs on biodiesel which is obtained by processing the restaurants’ burnt oil and other liquid fats and how it is used for the recycling program as well. Here’s, once again, my friend Kara Andrade explaining the first recycling program of La Antigua Guatemala.

This is what Kara Andrade had this to say about recycling in La Antigua Guatemala:

For weeks I’ve been asking different people about recycling centers, pickup services, anything to stop the madness of the trash we’ve been generating in our house for the past two months. Everyone’s says “Oh yeah, La Antigua recycles.” or “Have you tried that place in Ciudad Vieja?” “The capital has a few places, go there.” All so vague and unhelpful that it made me question whether  it was sheer urban legend.

… I looked in the yellow pages, I tweeted, I asked other “greensters,” but nothing satiated my need for convenience, conservation and practicality.  So I spent a few hours on Facebook looking for Facebook groups with the keyword “Guatemala” in them and poured through 500 pages until I found these folks:

Guatemala Green: How it Works

We called and spoke to Pedro Morales  Tel: 5104 8447 (there’s also an English speaker – Becky Harris (English Speaking)  Tel: 5778 4009) and scheduled a regular pick-up from our home on Tuesdays. We neede  to improve our sorting/storing methodology, per their requirements, but an hour of sorting, washing out and rearranging everything did the trick. We got some neighbors in on it and they brought their recyclables over. (Continue reading… It’s worth every penny)

Guatemalan Video Aside: You know I’m always looking for Guatemalan music and videos to share with you and to promote what’s being done here. I was made aware of the video “Son de la armonía” by Razones de Cambio by @ykro who in Twitter said this: “No sé pero algo tiene esta canción… que me hace sentirme más orgulloso de ser guatemalateco «I don’t know, but there’s something about this song… which makes me feel more proud of being Guatemalan»”.

Slowly but surely recycling is becoming a reality in Antigua Guatemala.

Can anybody explain me what is the Guatemalan fascination with toneles (barrels)?

Water heaters is another important area in Guatemala where one can bring clear energy and help the environment and the economy. That is because most water heaters are electric in Guatemala; either electric shower heads (the most) or inline electric heaters. Either way, water heaters probably consumed the most electricity of all the electro-domestic appliances. The worst part is that Guatemala produces its electricity through fossil fuels like bunker, coal (carbon) and diesel. I say the worst part because Guatemala has tremendous amounts of natural resources to produce cleaner electricity.

So Alejandro del Valle has partnered Biopersa with Kioto to distribute solar water heaters like the one shown in the picture above. Solar water heaters work especially well in Guatemala because of the sun light we received year round, even in the rainy season.

Let’s hope more people and businesses begin replacing their electric heaters with solar water heaters. If you had the choice and enough sun light through out the year, would you install a solar water heater?

This is what I shared with you before about the Antigua’s Biodiesel Project:

Antigua Guatemala is full of Quixotes who do not know about impossibles. Alejandro del Valle is such a Quixote who after careful consideration decided to take on the gigantic enterprise to convert the burnt cooking oil from all those restaurants around La Antigua Guatemala and Guatemala City into renewal biodiesel energy to be used in the Antigua’s City Hall vehicles and the Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro Hospital.

Come on, if after reading the above paragraph you don’t think you have to be a Quixote to take on such monumental project, just imagine for a second how many people you have to convince of the idea that converting burnt oil into biodiesel for the municipal vehicle fleet is feasible; never mind the ecological benefits. Come on, we are talking about business owners, Antigua’s Mayor and the City Council, investors and a long list of people throughout Guatemala and abroad. Alejandro del Valle and his supportive team did that.

The Antigua’s Biodiesel Project is something I believe in with all of my heart and I will come back to this project to highlight its merits and achievements as well as to show you the story behind the scenes…

Since that article was published, a few things have changed. Biopersa no longer provides biodiesel for La Antigua Guatemala’s municipal vehicles because someone in City Hall decided that biodiesel would damage the engines. However, as you saw yesterday, not only Biopersa, the company behind, the Biodiesel and other renewal energy projects, is still very much involved in ecological energy projects, recycling and the protection of the environment. Now they are selling their biodiesel the other companies, large and small.

Also, they are now converting chicken fat junk or trash into biodiesel. Thus, turning a ecological problem of contamination into renewal energy. Biopersa is becoming a distributor of solar powered water heaters to take advantage of the tremendous amount of sun shine we receive in Guatemala all year long. There’s plenty more, but I will only cover a few more things.

If you’re interested in learning the process of turning burnt oil and chicken fat into biodiesel, let me know I will update this entry with the basic steps that I learned the other day.

Recycling the recycling truck of La Antigua Guatemala. Keep reading and I promise the previous sentence will make sense.

My dear green friend Kara Andrade had this to say about recycling in La Antigua Guatemala:

For weeks I’ve been asking different people about recycling centers, pickup services, anything to stop the madness of the trash we’ve been generating in our house for the past two months. Everyone’s says “Oh yeah, La Antigua recycles.” or “Have you tried that place in Ciudad Vieja?” “The capital has a few places, go there.” All so vague and unhelpful that it made me question whether  it was sheer urban legend.

… I looked in the yellow pages, I tweeted, I asked other “greensters,” but nothing satiated my need for convenience, conservation and practicality.  So I spent a few hours on Facebook looking for Facebook groups with the keyword “Guatemala” in them and poured through 500 pages until I found these folks:

Guatemala Green: How it Works

We called and spoke to Pedro Morales  Tel: 5104 8447 (there’s also an English speaker – Becky Harris (English Speaking)  Tel: 5778 4009) and scheduled a regular pick-up from our home on Tuesdays. We neede  to improve our sorting/storing methodology, per their requirements, but an hour of sorting, washing out and rearranging everything did the trick. We got some neighbors in on it and they brought their recyclables over. (Continue reading… It’s worth every penny)

Of course, being a wholehearted greenster, Kara Andrade went the extra mile and organized a colonia recycling program in her neighborhood and even created two flyers; Recycling at El Calvario in English and Reciclaje en El Calvario. Below her one paragraph summary about the recycling program at her colonia (residential neighborhood):

What is Guatemala Green Recycling?
Guatemala Green is a recycling program that picks up already sorted materials for recycling in the La Antigua area. The centre is based in “El Tigre” next to Mastil on the road out of La Antigua towards Ciudad Vieja.

¿Que es Guatemala Green Recycling?
Guatemala Green es un programa de reciclaje que recoge los materials que ya están ordenados para el reciclaje en la zona de La Antigua. El centro se basa en “El Tigre” junto al Mástil en la carretera de La Antigua a Ciudad Vieja.

What my green thumb friend Kara Andrade didn’t mention was the fact that the vehicle used for the recycling pick up belongs to Biopersa, Antigua’s Biodiesel Project. Biopersa and Guatemala Green joined their resources to create the first viable recycling program in Antigua Guatemala. The biodiesel truck main purpose is to pick up restaurants’ burnt oil and other liquid fats which are then converted into biodiesel. The biodiesel truck, of course, runs on biodiesel and now is used for the recycling program as well.

That’s what I call 100% ecological recycling program!

I’m inspired by people like Kara Andrade from HablaGuate and Alejandro del Valle, the Quixote behind the Antigua’s Biodiesel Project and their team members. When I grow up, I want to be like them!

How does it work the recycling program where you live?

I have always believe that Green should be the color of Guatemala; green should be the flag and all other national iconography like money. Guatemala is green, green, green…

So today we begin a mini-series to show you some of the “green” initiatives are available just around Antigua Guatemala. I will not try to be thorough about what green projects there are in Antigua or even in Guatemala. I will just share with you what’s the most obvious. Also, I may simply share a little description of the ecological initiative or project and let you do all the reading at their web sites.

Grab a glass “green” iced tea and enjoy the encouraging and hopeful green enterprises.

e-Waste de Guatemala basically has three goals or programs: awareness, education and pick-up and disposal of electronic junk. This is what they say in their welcome page:

Somos una Asociación no lucrativa 100% Guatemalteca dedicada a la preservación del medio ambiente a través del manejo de desechos electrónicos, uno de sus objetivos principales es llevar a cabo programas de divulgación y educación , así como la implementación de campañas de acopio y selección de desperdicios electrónicos. (continuar leyendo… )

We are a 100% Guatemalan non-profit association dedicated to the preservation of the environment through the management [collection and disposal] of electronic waste. Our main goals are the implementation of awareness and educational programs as well as the imprementation of collection and selection of electronic junk. (continue reading… Ñ)

Do they have a similar initiative in the city where you live?

Green Recommendation: If you live in the U.S., Canada or Europe, make sure your government or medium or large corporations do NOT dump electronic waste or junk as donations on the “Third World.” If it is electronic junk produced in your country, make sure it is properly disposed or recycled in your country. Thanks!

Antigua Guatemala is full of Quixotes who do not know about impossibles. Alejandro del Valle is such a Quixote who after careful consideration decided to take on the gigantic enterprise to convert the burnt cooking oil from all those restaurants around La Antigua Guatemala and Guatemala City into renewal biodiesel energy to be used in the Antigua’s City Hall vehicles and the Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro Hospital.

Come on, if after reading the above paragraph you don’t think you have to be a Quixote to take on such monumental project, just imagine for a second how many people you have to convince of the idea that converting burnt oil into biodiesel for the municipal vehicle fleet is feasible; never mind the ecological benefits. Come on, we are talking about business owners, Antigua’s Mayor and the City Council, investors and a long list of people throughout Guatemala and abroad. Alejandro del Valle and his supportive team did that.

The Antigua’s Biodiesel Project is something I believe in with all of my heart and I will come back to this project to highlight its merits and achievements as well as to show you the story behind the scenes. In the mean time, if you want to learn more about the people behind such a innovative enterprise, please visit their website at biopersa.com or just watch a couple videos to get an overview of the biodiesel project. Afterwards, please, come back and let us know your impressions about Antigua’s Biodiesel Project and share with us if similar projects are already in placed in your neck of the woods.

Are you interested in learning how to convert burnt cooking oil into biodiesel fuel?