Recycling Collective

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Puerto López Recicla is a grassroots organization led by women that has been formally operating since July 2022; most of our organization's members are grassroots recyclers, while the rest are professionals, feminist activists, and environmentalists. We work in Puerto López, a small town bordering the Machalilla National Park, a protected natural area constantly threatened by deforestation, urban development, and pollution caused by garbage. Currently, violence, organized crime, and militarization also affect our territory.

 The majority of our organization's members live in the Los Dos Ríos neighbourhood, where the open-air garbage dump is located. The proximity to the dump affects our health and quality of life in multiple ways. The women in this sector face a scarcity of decent job opportunities, a subsequent lack of economic autonomy and material resources to sustain their lives, discrimination and stigmatization regarding recycling work and their families in daily life, as well as negative impacts on our health and our families' health. 

Since our founding as a collective, we created a productive project collecting recyclable materials from hotels, restaurants, and households in the canton, so we could stop working at the open-air garbage dump. We also built a collection center and a sewing workshop, have given workshops on gender violence directed at women and environmental education for children, and have created various strategies to demand improvements in waste treatment and dump management from the Municipality of Puerto López. 

Another important part of our work is our internal training. We have organized and participated in training spaces covering feminism, gender violence, the development of communication and conflict management skills, strategic planning, and comprehensive security. We have also learned different techniques to add value to recyclable materials, especially through sewing.  

Our mission

Puerto López Recicla was born with the objective of improving garbage management to help protect the biodiversity of our territory and improve the living conditions of our members. Currently, we have a project called "Manos que transforman" (Hands that transform - textile recycling), through which we seek to develop our skills to increase the income of our worker cooperative.  

The poor management of solid waste in the canton, as well as the discrimination and stigmatization of our members (recyclers) and the lack of decent employment opportunities. 

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