In the photo, Miss Valle collects waste along with the athletes and families who accepted the invitation to participate in the sixth version of the Cali River plogging.
- Plogging the Cali River allowed volunteers and athletes to remove more than 1.5 tons of waste from the Cali River
- The Dagma carried out awareness-raising and environmental education work with citizens along the route.
Santiago de Cali, April 28, 2024
From very early on, more than a hundred people from Cali went out to play sports and free the Cali River of waste, in a ‘plogging’ type day that combines sports, environmental education, and civility.
Along the 6.5 kilometers of the section between the entrance of the Cali Zoo and the Orchid Park, the participants managed to remove 1.5 tons of waste from the river bank. The attendees explained that the sections that go between the El Ancla monument and the Intercontinental Hotel, as well as between the Cali Tower and the old Licorera, were the ones with the greatest presence of poor solid waste disposal.
Plogging is a sports trend originating in Sweden, which combines outdoor physical activity with waste collection to keep natural and urban spaces clean. In Cali, the citizen group La Papaya, for six years, has sought to generate environmental awareness with this type of activities.
Felipe Velásquez, director of the NGO La Papaya, pointed out that the sixth version of the plogging was a success and thanked the support provided by the Environmental Police and the Cali Mayor’s Office, through the Mobility Secretariat and the Dagma.
“We are preparing Cali for COP16, this is an environmental contribution activity that we carry out thanks to the teamwork of private companies, institutions and citizens consciously united with love for our city,” he emphasized.
For his part, the advisor to the Dagma Directorate, Fabio Orejuela, pointed out that these exercises of mobilization and environmental transformation, like the one we saw today along the Cali River, are what the COP will surely leave us with the city.
Every kilometer, the organizers installed a waste collection point, where the athletes weighed and delivered the collected waste so that they would be deducted the 15 seconds to which they were entitled for each kilogram of waste removed from the river bank, time that they took advantage of. the staff of the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management, Climate Change and Governance and Environmental Culture groups to carry out color code pedagogy to carry out proper separation at the source of waste in our homes.
The 1.5 tons of waste collected on the day were delivered and used by an organization of professional recyclers. In Santiago de Cali, more than 5,000 families depend on recycling for their livelihood.
By separating at the source and delivering usable waste directly to professional recyclers, in addition to contributing to the better living of a family, we contribute to the decoration of the city, the care of the rivers and the well-being of our great common home.
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