A basket loaded with empty plastic containers, located on the sidewalk and close to the entrance door of Mar sin Plast, indicates the place where all that material that managed to be saved from the garbage can is received. Mar sin Plast is a family business that aims to raise awareness in the management of plastic waste. It was born in a pandemic with the aim of reducing as much plastic as possible that is wasted in the city of Mar del Plata by recycling the material and manufacturing everyday products.
Since 2020, hundreds of containers of shampoo, jars of cheese, yogurt, candy, drums, cleaning products and caps arrive daily in the hands of Josefina Diez (29 years old), lidegree in Environmental Management at the National Technological University (UTN), specialized in Communication and Environment (UNLP).
The concern about giving plastics a second use—one of the most polluting elements for the environment—prompted Diez to make and disseminate a video on social networks in which he invited the community to bring their plastics to the workshop with the promise to give them a second life. “I released the video in the middle of the pandemic and I was surprised by how quickly it went viral, perhaps it had to do with the increase in awareness about caring for the environment at a time when we were all isolated.” The response of her followers surprised her, the number grew in a few days and exceeded all expectations. Thus she began the Mar sin Plast Project, with which she proposed in September of that year to carry out a concrete action to try to mitigate the impact of plastics in the garbage of her city. “Plastic is the material that marked our era and the one we use the most daily,” she argues.
Mar sin Plast receives type 2 (polyethylene), type 5 (polypropylene) and type 6 (polystyrene) plastics. The types of plastics can be found under each container. These are the only ones of the seven varieties in total that do not have a formal recovery circuit, unlike PET which does have a recycling circuit. “I chose the plastic that needed to be recycled in the market”summarizes Diez. In any case, water or soda bottles also arrive at his workshop but he does not recycle them, he only collects them and delivers them to cooperatives in the area in charge of recovering PET, among other recyclable materials.
Per week it receives approximately twenty bags of consortium at its main collection point, located at 5022 Urquiza Street in the spa city. “I am interested in limiting the collection points because it is a way to control the amount of plastic that enters and, also, because it is the best way for them to bond and learn about the project. It’s good to have direct contact when they come to drop off their bags; They are always invited to come up and see where I work and the objects I make with their plastics,” he explains. You can also bring the plastics for Mar sin Plast to the Luleå Mindful location, located at 2479 14 de Julio Street, and to different schools in the city.
What you get with recycled plastic
Among the most requested recycled plastic products are flower pots, lamps, water bowls and pet feeders. He clarifies that they are mostly produced to order, which is why his workshop does not have a “showroom”; There are only a few pieces on view.
In 2021, different institutions, schools and organizations contacted each other to order products wholesale. Among the orders that Diez remembers, There were keychains, credentials for conferences, medals to present in clubs and educational spaces, and souvenirs to redefine the concept of business gifts.
When you analyze what other experiences your project was nourished with, you go directly to Precius Plastica European initiative guided by a group of professionals who teach how to recycle plastic in an artisanal way in small-scale workshops and which recommends following. By entering this platform you also access information about the type of appropriate machinery that you should acquire to recycle each type of plastic, a catalog of products that serve as inspiration to start manufacturing at home and general information based on evidence about the polluting power of plastics in the world.
Educate: the great focus of Mar sin Plast
While stacking a series of plates made from recovered material, Diez makes room on the table for a new round of mate. In these years, he sits and says, he recovered about ten tons of plastic that were turned into objects. Although the amount of plastic volume he received grew each year, he does not plan to scale his microenterprise to obtain higher levels of production. The focus, however, is on providing training and talks (in person and on-line) in schools, universities, organizations and companies to raise awareness about the importance of recovering plastic and, at the same time, to teach how to transform it into a future object.
“First I am interested in educating and raising awareness and it is through use of recycling and the production of products where I find the key to changing people’s habits. When the neighbor who brought her shampoo container sees it turned into a flower pot, there is another impact”, he points out.
Starting in 2022, Diez began to welcome schools and universities into its workshop. The first of her contacted her through social networks asking her if they could approach the students to find out what Mar sin Plast does and how she does it. “For an hour I provide precise information about the serious problem of plastic pollution in the world adapted to the age of the students who come to visit, with the fundamental addition of my own experience in the field of recycling and the manufacture of objects, detailing findings, but also errors, with the intention that anyone learns to replicate this initiative with the path a little more paved.”
For this year, visits to 23 schools in Mar del Plata and the area (Balcarce, Miramar, Mar Chiquita) are planned. Since it began to receive schools, it has counted about 40 institutions, both public and private, in the area.. She was also contacted by schools in other provinces to have virtual talks over the next few months.
The teachers’ experience
The Mar del Plata Day School visited Diez’s workshop in May of last year after Get in touch with the initiative through social networks.
The demand to make this visit came from the school itself: “With the third grade students we worked on a project framed within the sustainable development objectives and one of the topics was caring for the environment; “This is how we get to the plastics related to our city and to Josefina,” says the teacher and coordinator of the English area Grace Gilardoni.
According to the teacher, the talk the students received “was very complete and had a direct impact on their daily lives.” In addition to receiving an adapted explanation about the importance of taking care of the planet, they were asked what they knew about plastic recycling and they were presented with the three types of plastics that Diez recycles.. The entrepreneur also taught them how she crushes them and transforms them into an object helped by different machinery present in her workshop.
“With everything they learned, the kids put together a plastic waste collection campaign that was expanded to all levels of that school. During the following months, in turn, work was done on the classification of these recovered plastics,” Gilardoni remarks and says that “When Josefina came by to pick up the bags, she brought different products ready so that the whole school could see them.”
In addition to recovering plastic and learning to separate it, the students were able to apply everything they learned in different disciplines, including Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Mathematics. “We were able to connect content from everyday life with meaningful content that will make the kids apply it not only in school but in life.”adds the teacher.
For its part, the San Antonio María Gianelli school has already visited Mar sin Plast for the third consecutive year. The classroom 4 teacher at that school, María Virginia Ortiz, details: “In my classroom we work on the importance of the 3 Rs—reduce, reuse and recycle—so they learn what happens with garbage and everything that can be recovered. After the visit to Josefina’s workshop, the kids were able to incorporate the concept in a more palpable way,” says Ortiz.
That is why they return every year, after observing their students “shocked” when they come into contact with the machines. “Seeing that we can all do something concrete for the environment, they feel stimulated to separate plastics and think of new objects that prevent these materials from becoming garbage. It has already happened to us several times that parents tell us that their children ask them to separate the garbage at home and recover the plastics. The change is immediate.”
The importance of networking
What other social actors does Mar sin Plast work with? ““With local entrepreneurs linked to environmental care we are in a network, we know each other and we consult frequently,” Ten points out. At the moment, he is working with a colleague who recovers textiles in Mar del Plata, with Regenera, a cooperative that recovers organic waste, and with other recoverers of various materials in the area. They also exchange knowledge and work with Reaccionar, an initiative of the City of Buenos Aires.
“Together with environmental entrepreneurs in the area we share knowledge, doubts and possible solutions to everyday problems. We also rely on social networks so that each of our ventures gains greater visibility,” she says. And he projects: “For this year we plan to mix different materials—plastics, textiles and other recyclable materials—and try to design objects together among several entrepreneurs with the aim of offering a sustainable alternative in corporate products.”
On the other hand, the founder of Mar sin Plast worked together with the Industrial Design degree program at the National University of Mar del Plata during 2022 and 2023. “The project aimed to think about urban furniture with recycled plastic for the community. ItThe students who visited the workshop tried to work with the recovered material with the techniques that I transmitted to them in my space. The experience was very good”considers.
Currently, Diez is about to launch a course on-line on initiation to craft recycling, designed especially for teachers: “From the concern of learning to recycle to work on environmental problems through concrete actions, many schools asked me for training”.
This note is part of the platform Solutionsan alliance between Black river and NETWORK/ACTION.
