According to Bogotá’s Department of Sanitation (UAESP), food courts in Bogotá’s Shopping Malls recover around 8% of their waste, whereas, if waste was well sorted it could reach a recovery percentage of 60%. Considering these numbers, UAESP partnered with 5 food and packaging companies and one Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) last year to launch a recycling project (called “Separar Transforma”) in 5 shopping malls in Bogotá. With the help of interactive screens and information guides next to the food court’s bins, the project intended to promote waste sorting habits at the mall that people could emulate at home. Choosing the mall as the target of the recycling project, guaranteed not only a higher recovery of wastes, but also a wide dissemination of the message to all socioeconomic levels.
Acoplásticos will participate in the second version of “Separar Transforma” which will start on June 2018 and will last for six months. Learning from the latter experience, the second version will be more interactive and include the participation of “Plast” a fictional character created by Acoplásticos, which simulates a transformer of recycled products. “Plast” is made of recycled material and will be the spokesman for the campaign stressing one key idea: the value of waste and the importance of learning how to sort it well.
