This project will build small scale plastic-recycling machinery to clean up Lake Atitlan. The machines in action will financially support the clean up of plastic waste while creating stable, dignified work for rural Mayan people. With the help of volunteers and technical staff, we will build the three machines inspired by the PreciousPlastics.com open-source design. We need your help to cover materials, workshop space and a metalworker.
Processed foods and drink bottles are floating on the picturesque Lake Atitlan, recently hitting the tourism boom that is changing the population around the Lake. Facing a serious algae bloom after decades of mismanaged waste facilities, the Lake is at the brink. Communities and organizations around the Lake are taking action with black, but without a real economic solution to deter casual polluters (people ditching an empty water bottle) plastic waste will be ever present.
A plastics recycling center that produces locally useful products for sale can compensate fishermen or unemployed people who collect and separate trash. The fisherman's association is already collecting trash voluntarily, the center incentivizes it to continue.
In an area with extremely high rates of unemployment, the machines will help us create dignified work and reduce plastic waste build up at Lake Atitlan. This impact, alongside the work of other projects to reduce blackwater and chemical agriculture run-off, will ease the algae bloom and assist the recuperation of Lake Atitlan's ecological health.
