Search Results for Tag: Colombia
Plastic bottles to greenhouses
A few days ago we received a very inspiring idea from Colombia. The e-mail came from the Centre for Science and Environmental Awareness and it helps to deal with growing mountains of empty plastic bottles.
We learned from the institute’s website that in Colombia an incredibly large amount of 15,000,000 plastic bottles is dumped every day. These bottles are not only thrown into trash bins, they are mainly just thrown away somewhere and this way become a very serious environmental problem.
The Centre for Science and Environmental Awareness tries to tackle the problem. As you can see in the picture, greenhouses are built to grow daily goods. The plastic-bottle-roofs have a size of about 3×3 meters. With only 4 hours work a week the roofs help to feed a family for a whole year, writes Carlos Alberto Yepes Vera, director of the center.
He also calls out to donate bottles or similar garbage to build more of these houses. The project’s goal, he says is also to build an awareness among the population to avoid the use of plastic bottles.
We are extremely grateful to hear from ideas like this one, so send us more of it!
Reporter’s Log: The road of terror
The road from Santa Marta winds along Colombia’s Pacific coast to Bogotá. It’s one-lane traffic and the path is dotted with potholes. Massive trucks idle in impossibly long lines: tankers, timber trucks and hazardous material transporters all share the same road because it is the only one that takes them to their destination. The landscape along the ride, though, is beautiful: lush, green mountains line the road, carpeted with palm and banana trees as well as ferns. But the idyllic scenery has a darker side, too: here, FARC guerrilla fighters used the thick green canopy to hide kidnapping victims and hold them until they received ransom money in return.
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Comments deactivated Reporter’s Log: Women’s Day in Aracataca
ere one of the world’s most famous authors was born. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian writer, who achieved world fame with his book “One hundred years of Solitude.” On this weekend, the house where he was born is staging a series of events. The women of the Association of Small Farmers are celebrating Women’s Day. At the entrance, each visitor is gifted a carnation and a program with the day’s events. There are talks about the situation of women, information about agricultural development. Donna Carmen, the wife of the plantation owner, speaks about social affairs. 161 small farmers have organized themselves in the “Palmalianza.” read more
Comments deactivated Medellin’s Metrocable
Medillin is the 2nd largest city in Colombia and, like many big urban centers, traffic and congestion–and chaos–often rules the streets. On top of that, many Colombians who live in suburbs on the steep slopes surrounding the city have long had a tough time getting to work and back every day. But local authorities have come up with an innovative and eco-friendly way to bring commuters in and out of the city: the Medillin Metrocable. Check out this report!
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