Despite various initiatives, recycling rates in Chile are still around 10%. This happens, among other things, because we do not have an adequate infrastructure to value this waste, since the installed capacity is concentrated in the urban centers and it is not profitable to manage waste from remote areas, generating even an idle capacity in the system.
Given this, what we did in LUP was to develop a low-scale plastic recycling system, which allows waste management from remote areas in an economical and cost-effective way, thanks to the fact that we incorporate the artisans into the recycling chain.
The problem of plastic is repeated in hundreds of cities in Latin America, where in addition the craft is a source of income for many families; so through this cross between craft + design + recycling, we can increase the recycling rates and support the economic development of thousands of artisans across the continent.