Recycling Around Antigua Guatemala

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!

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