Let’s try: think and visualize the act of recycling. What you probably imagined is a person placing a container, carton or other product in a bucket at home or carrying a bag to the corresponding container. The latest Kantar study for Ecoembes reveals that 8 out of 10 households say they have more than one space to classify their waste and one of them is always intended for packaging the yellow container. In addition to sorting road containers, Ecoembes has agreements with 81 private managers through which it facilitates selective collection in more than 17,000 places, such as penitentiaries, hospitals, universities, sports centers, etc., in addition to 300 RECYCLED machines — which offer a SDR Return and Reward System – located in busy locations such as train stations, shopping centers or hospitals.
Everyday gestures also at work
Adrián Silva goes to one of these busy places, the Santiago Bernabéu stadium (Madrid). “I’ve been seeing the recycling bins there for a while. I’m so used to seeing them and using them that it seems incredible to me that at one point they weren’t there,” he says, remembering. Real Madrid is one of more than 20 Spanish football teams working with Ecoembes to bring recycling closer with more than 3,000 bins and containers installed on their grounds. For Silva, who works in a consultancy in central Madrid, these colorful containers are also an essential landscape element in his work. “In the office, they started with blues, for paper, but now we also have yellows – for containers – and greens – for glass,” he says. For him, continuing to recycle beyond his home is the most natural thing. “When it comes to such daily habits, it’s easy to maintain them in the office as well,” he concludes.
Something similar happens to Beatriz Moreno, who still remembers the moment when they asked for a paper recycling bin to be placed in her office. “I work in an agency, imagine the amount of paper we use, so we asked to be able to recycle it. They brought us the blue bins and gave us a little training so as not to waste too much,” he remembers. Ecoembes has an initiative to launch sustainable work centers which brings selective collection to workplaces interested in sorting their packaging.
Recycle also in places of study and leisure
Work is not the only place, besides his home, where Moreno can recycle and he cites as an example the municipal sports center where he goes, twice a week, to practice swimming and on weekends to watch soccer matches. his daughter Andrea. , the “true family activist”, as Moreno defines her. A biology student, Andrea doesn’t understand why there are those who don’t recycle. “Today it’s almost harder not to do it than to do it. There are trash cans and containers everywhere and a lot of information so as not to make a mistake,” she explains, pointing to the two trash cans – blue and yellow – which are in the corridor of the sports center and which she, she explains, barely uses it because she normally carries Carry Your Own Reusable Water Bottle.
However, he recycles regularly at the university and especially at the library where he usually goes to study. “As exams approach, I spend more time there than at home and, if I separate and recycle at home, it is clear that I will also do it at the library or wherever I go,” she answers categorically.
The way forward is for everyone to be as clear as Adrián and Andrea, and for even those who are used to recycling at home to become even more aware of it and do the same wherever their routine takes them. Only then will it make sense to participate in change.
