Letter from San Pancho

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San Pancho, a village in Nayarit, Mexico, has recycling. I was so glad to find wire recycling bins for public use along the dirt and stone streets, for plastic, glass, and aluminum. When I was having breakfast this morning, a wiry old fellow came in to fill his old plastic soda bottle with milk, sugar, and coffee (in that order). He knows the inherent functional value of a plastic bottle, even if he does not know that it will last hundreds of years.

There is a recycling park built by the community with play structures of scrap materials, including a bridge made out of tuna fishing nets, and a group of women make lots of cool things to sell out of bottles, poptops, plastic bags. Even those plastic six-pack holders (known to cause damage to sea life) are colored and woven into flowers ... there's a metaphor. But the world has a limited capacity for plastic flowers, ¿yes?

Anyway, I learned that this all began only 14 months ago with a dedicated group, and already, all of the school children are competing to bring in recyclables, and of course, they are teaching their parents. A small organization called Entre Amigos has been seminal in making all of this happen. They offered the community a library, education programs, and scholarships. A compacter was purchased for their recycling depot, and it was decided in the beginning that they were NOT sending their recycling to China. It is sold or made into plastic lumber, benches, play structures, glassware, etc. in this region. Best of all, there are now many more programs being planned in other communities, based on this one, because of its great success. What an inspiration to experience great work like this!

Related Links

• More Ecofacts columns
• Entre Amigos

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