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19 January 2009
Student´s green scheme to benefit Colombian community
A student from the University of Sheffield has developed a unique recycling scheme which will help transform the lives of street workers in Colombia.
Sarah Tomlinson, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, developed the project in collaboration with a team from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. The scheme relies upon a plastics processing device which will facilitate recycling in the impoverished Ramirez community in the Colombian Capital, Bogota.
Workers in this community currently collect rubbish from the streets and sell it for very little money, often surviving on less than $1 per day. Collecting waste is often difficult and dangerous work, providing little reward for the workers. Many of the children in this community do not go to school as they are required to work in order to earn money for their families.
The project´s ultimate aim is for the Ramirez community to own and run a manufacturing plant, based on the device. The initiative will build on the community´s existing waste management knowledge with the aim of creating a business that will empower the workers and create a viable economic resource and socially beneficial product for the community.
The collection of rubbish will be done through official contracts, which will result in the community improving their social standing in Colombia, where there is still a very strict class system. The project also has positive environmental implications. Bogota currently produces over 600 tonnes of potentially recyclable resources. By nurturing a culture of recycling, thousands of tonnes of potentially useful materials will no longer go to waste.
Sarah, who recently visited the community in Colombia, said: "I am thrilled to be working on a project that has so many positive repercussions for this Colombian community. By adding value to the product they are selling, the community´s living standards will consequently increase, enabling more children to go to school.
She added: "When I visited the community, I was able to experience at first hand, the lifestyle they led. Once the project has been implemented their lives could be dramatically improved and I am really looking forward to seeing the project become a reality for the workers here."
Sarah´s team has won two separate entrepreneur competitions with the project, which resulted in a $12,500 prize to finance the development of the recycling device. It is hoped that by 2015, the Ramirez community will be running their own recycling plant. The initiative could then have further global implications, as the device has the potential to be scaled up to meet the needs of similar communities all over the world.
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