Overview and History of Project

Bolivia lies in the heart of South America and is the poorest country of this continent. Two thirds of the population live below the poverty line. For many people, this translates into a low education level, sub-standard nutrition and poor health.

The management of "waste" is one of the most discussed environmental problems in Bolivia. Extremely high costs for the municipal waste treatment and the need for more and more terrains for landfills opened the eyes of many people and especially politicians in the country, in the sense that the Bolivian society cannot continue mixing toxic, organic and recyclable waste. Beside that and thanks to the increasing oil price, PET gets more and more interesting, especially for the poorest population, which is working at night in the streets, searching all kind of commercially useable items in the litter bins. The actual price of PET [2007] is USD 0.20 per kg.

In 2005 Swisscontact, the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation, decided to launch the PET-Recycling Project in Bolivia based on the promising experiences made in Central America (Costa Rica and El Salvador), where similar projects for PET-Recycling were implemented. All projects are working on three levels:

1. Support of the legal framework about the handling of solid waste including recycling,

2. Foundation of an independent non-profit organization for recycling, with different partners from the public and private sector,

3. Improve the system of collection, in order to raise the quantity of PET.

Besides the effort to support an adequate legal framework on national and local levels, the main player of the project is the Foundation for Recycling, FUNDARE. This non-profit organization with partners of the public and private sector is mainly working in schools and colleges with an educational program. At the same time, it seeks to strengthen the collection system by supporting the work of the poorest population, the so-called waste pickers in the streets. The collected material is going to be sold to a local enterprise.

FUNDARE started operating in 2006 in La Paz/El Alto. In 2007 the foundation was implemented in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, and is therefore covering the four biggest Bolivian cities, with the aim to contribute to an increased PET collecting quote in Bolivia, in a self-financed and sustainable manner.