Upskill a Community to Fight Poverty in Costa Rica

The municipality of Quepos is launching a new recycling initiative in the area. The director and teachers of the public Primary School in El Cocal requested GVI’s support in launching the recycling program in the school.

A waste management system has only recently been implemented in the community of El Cocal. Families have been accustomed to simply burying their refuse. The issue is complicated further by the fact that the community is separated from the main land by a river mouth, so all refuse collection involves it being transported by boat across to the main land where it can then be collected. Recycling is a new requirement imposed by the government and the first step is to educate the children of the community by setting up a recycling program in the school. The preparations started a few months ago with the GVI volunteers working on the best strategy to make the implementation of this recycling initiative fun, educational and sustainable on a long term basis.

Three big containers were built from wood scraps that were then decorated with the children at the Community Center. There is one container for paper, one for plastic and one for metal; the decorations on the containers make it very simple for the children to understand which is which. The initiative was launched at an assembly in the school courtyard. The team in charge of the initiative presented the recycling program and explained the use of the containers to the children. They had planned some activities that helped the children to understand the importance of recycling. They also did a small pantomime, involving sorting through trash and asking the children to indicate which container which piece of trash belonged in. The children really enjoyed the activity and it was effective in checking their understanding of how to dispose of their trash in the future.