36: There’s More to Recycling than Three ‘R’s
Colombia
A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer
Members of Iglesia Menonita Teusaquillo in Bogotá, Colombia can be seen toting cloth grocery bags printed with the five ‘R’s of recycling.
Wait, five?
“We started to think about the three Rs, and moving to more Rs,” said Juliana Morillo, a member of the church’s creation care group.
To the original three–‘reduce,’ ‘reuse’ and ‘recycle’–they added two more: ‘rethink’ and ‘reject.’
‘Rethink’ means making sure I actually need to buy something, Juliana explained. And ‘reject’ is an encouragement to not buy what isn’t necessary.
As the creation care group explored the theme, they held workshops for the congregation on consumption and waste, showed educational videos and encouraged church members to be more aware of the consequences of their shopping habits.
“At the time in Colombia, the issue of disposable bags was big,” said Yomaida Cardona Pajaro, another member of the group.
The group contracted a seamstress to make a set of cloth bags with the five Rs, and started distributing them within the church. They sold some to members and gave others as gifts to those who contributed to church activities. They encouraged everyone to use cloth bags instead of plastic ones when they go shopping.
In a video created by the group during the pandemic, they said: “As a result of consumerism, arrogance and lack of consciousness, the wonderful planet earth our home is being drowned in… waste that has been thrown mainly in ravines and canyons, rivers and the sea.”
In Colombia, the video explains, the work of sorting and recycling that waste is carried out in large part by over 30 million informal personas recicladoras who collect items like bottles and scraps of metal and take them to recycling facilities, where they receive a small compensation.
Many of these people are migrants and many live on the streets where they are often looked down upon.
The video argues that really, recyclers are “resilient, dedicated, creative, entrepreneurs, human beings who every day carry out the grand work (of recycling).” It provides some tips on how to bring dignity to this important profession:
Separate your food waste from your recycling. Clean recyclable items for the sake of those who handle them. Wrap sharp or broken items before throwing them out to prevent workers from cutting their hands. And treat street recyclers as human beings: talk to them, thank them for their work and look them in the eyes.
“Ask them how they are,” the video encourages. “Maybe there is something new we can learn from that person.”
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Video: Dignifying the recycling profession
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