Editorial Radio Panama. More than 30 tons of plastic waste that are removed from the beaches per month during the cleanups organized by the Environmental Management Department of the Mayor’s Office of Panama and that are collected in the Zero Waste program, will be turned into urban furniture.
This will be possible thanks to the signing of an agreement with the Botellas de Amor Foundation that will allow the treatment of this waste and turn it into urban furniture for municipal parks.
The agreement will have a duration of 3 years and consists of a loan made by the municipality to the Botellas de Amor Foundation, of two machines, valued at 10,000 balboas, which were donated by the “Urban Ocean” program, which carried out a process and participation of more than 1 year, along with 4 other cities in Asia.
According to Jannia Samuels, deputy director of Resilience, the Municipality proposed Urban Ocean as a pilot to form an alliance with an NGO that complies with the circularity cycle with a final product from plastic recycling.
“Complying with this cycle is the goal of this program, which is why we joined Botellas de Amor, a foundation with which the Mayor’s Office has already worked,” said Samuels.
The Fundación Botellas de Amor has a collection point in the Hatillo building and there they receive bottles filled with flexible plastic with which they make products, including street furniture that will be delivered to the Mayor’s Office.
The official maintains that the advantage is that these machines have the capacity to treat up to 30 tons of plastic per month, with 8-hour shifts a day, in the future it could increase up to 240 tons with three work shifts a day.
“That means that there are 30 tons of plastic that will not reach the sea or Cerro Patacón and it is another of the purposes of the program,” he said.
The last beach cleanup will be on December 10, so Samuels points out that this “will be the first in which they will make the diversion to the foundation, it will be the first exercise to do the complete cycle,” he said.
“Botellas de Amor makes urban furniture with this product, which is what we are committed to, but you can also make games for children, furniture, bridges in parks and even homes,” Samuels details.
According to the official, this material has the approval of the Technological University of Panama and meets the requirements for fire resistance, and with certain resistance characteristics that make it a material suitable for construction.
“The two teams are from the mayor’s office, but we transferred them to the foundation as a loan; they have the operational part, they manage the equipment and the rest of the recycling cycle”, he explained.
It should be mentioned that the agreement also includes environmental education programs carried out by the Environmental Management Department.
