RECYKLAAS: GLASS UPCYCLING IN GALAPAGOS

Moisés Moya Campuzano, is a permanent resident of Galápagos, pastor of the Hosanna Christian Center and is committed to the conservation of the islands. In 2019, due to the pollution generated by glass waste in Galápagos, he decided to set up a small business with his family to collect and upcycle used glass bottles to produce useful materials for daily life and thus raise awareness among the population of the possibilities of reusing and recycling.

“With this project we aim to make the most environmentally friendly glass in the world.”

You can donate to this project through any of our three partners. If you would like to talk to us directly, and/or speak with the project leader, please contact us at info@co-galapagos.org.

Currently, a large number of glass bottles that are used in the various businesses in the province are discarded, which not only generates significant work for the Municipalities in collecting and processing this waste, but also produces a lot of pollution when these materials are not properly recycled. Every year, a large amount of rubbish is collected around the islands in coastal cleanups and in populated areas. The most common materials in this waste are plastic and glass, largely because there is a lack of sufficient collection and treatment systems for these materials to enable adequate recycling, upcycling and reuse.

The proposal of the RecyKlass project is to collect as many bottles as possible directly from local businesses, and use them to make glasses. These will then be supplied both to homes and the same businesses that imported and used the bottles in the first place. In this way, the project will reduce glass contamination and give a new use to all the bottles that are discarded, to gradually reduce the importation of new glasses and other glass utensils that can be made here instead. The first phase of this project will supply glasses to the entire community of Floreana Island.

• To make environmentally-friendly glass for Galápagos
• To reduce the energy consumption and raw materials needed for the production of glasses
• To make Galápagos the first place to use solely locally made glasses produced from the glass bottles that are used by local businesses
• To support the Municipal Government in the collection and treatment of glass bottles that are discarded in Puerto Ayora (initially) and reducing the need to transport them back to the mainland
• To reduce pollution from glass waste (bottles)
• To create awareness in the community

• 6.3 Improve water quality by reducing pollution, particularly that of raw sewage, minimizing the release of hazardous chemicals and materials, and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse: This project will reduce hazardous materials entering the water, in the form of glass itself, and chemicals from the treatment of glass
• 8.2 Sustainably achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading, innovation and research, encouraging the preferential use of local labour: This project will bring new technology and innovation to the islands and increase the diversification of the economy toward the circular economy.
• 12.5 Reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse: This project will utilise recycling, reuse and upcycling processes and directly reduce the amount of glass waste produced in Galápagos
• 14.1 Prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution: This project will reduce the amount of glass waste and chemicals  reaching the marine reserve from the islands