Empower Women to Save the Red Knot in Mexico

These first few months have flown by! One of the ways we have identified continuing to promote the conservation of the Red Knot and the Gulf grunion is by collecting “trash” on the beach. This year, we received a training workshop on the super recycling of plastics, an activity we had wanted to do for a long time because we knew the importance of separating household waste by type (organic, plastics, glass, metal, and paper or cardboard). Still, we wanted to take a step forward in the management of these resources, which are commonly wasted.

This project taught us to identify the classification of plastics, which are divided into seven types, to learn more about the properties of some of them to recover them both from household waste and by collecting them directly from the environment. We cleaned, classified them by type and color, and then ground and melted them into aluminum molds to create recycled plastic objects in the shapes of regional animals such as the Vaquita, the Red Knot, the Gulf grunion, and sea turtles. We even made a comb – yes, a comb for your hair!

Thanks to your donations through GlobalGiving, we acquired part of the safety equipment necessary for the operation of the super recycling machines. And we were able to perform beach cleaning, with the respective separation of waste for proper handling and recycling. Additionally, we made two rounds of waste collection at designated points in Santa Clara’s Gulf. At the same time, we shared content on social media to spread the importance of these issues and how each of us can be part of conservation every day!

There is still much to do in favor of conserving ecosystems and species in our region. Your support is precious for us to continue this work. 

Join us!