Crafts for the environment

This photo of a ReciclArte necklace won a first prize in the photo contest "Transform Your Country", sponsored by Geocycle, Stein Laboratories and the City of San José, Costa Rica, November 2008.

“Existe un trabajo detrás de cada pieza
hecha de lo que siempre hemos clasificado como desechos;
mujeres quienes transforman desechos en arte;

un sueño de salvar al mundo convertido en supervivencia.
¿Cómo saber que el origen de una pieza tan bella es creado
de abre-fácil y tela?”

Photograph: Laura Millet; text: Daniela Arguedas

From pull-tabs to funky jewelry

This original handmade jewelry is the fruit of a socio-environmental project which seeks to produce a change in the way throw-away materials are seen, demonstrating that common “trash” can be transformed into attractive articles, provoking concrete actions in response to our individual responsibility to preserve Planet Earth.

The purchase of these articles contributes to generating alternative revenues for groups of women artisans who devote both their creative imagination and their labor in recuperating these materials, to preserving the environment.

The proceeds are used to generate and strengthen environmental education projects through community recycling in all parts of Costa Rica.

Recup'Art, responsible buying

In 2007, the volunteer group, Coalición Reciclaje and the Costa Rican NGO Asociación Terra Nostra, united their efforts to co-develop an original initiative that marries art, recycling, environmental education and gender equality.

Born of the need to generate alternative sources of revenue to strengthen community recycling in rural areas, organized groups of women - those most often responsible for rural recycling - began to be trained in making this eco-jewelry, designed by the Coalición Reciclaje volunteers, using only materials commonly found in recycling centers: pull-tabs from discarded beverage cans woven with fabric remnants, to make necklaces, bracelets, earrings and belts.

A network of production centers was established in early 2008, to which was added a national network of points-of-sale that offer the articles made by these women recyclers . “RecyclArt, Crafts for the Environment” is the name of the line of jewelry, as well as the environmental education project that oversees the production, and national and international marketing.