Georgina, our education coordinator, arranged a short field trip to the Tortuguero recycling plant. Tortuguero is an unusually small village to house an entire facility to process recycled materials. Throughout the town there are recycling bins for plastic, aluminum, glass and garbage. For the most part, it is separated correctly, but additional sorting must take place. Each Thursday, the plant empties the bins and takes them to their facility for washing and separation.
Once washed, the plastic, cartons and cardboard are compressed into blocks. Once a certain amount is reached, the plant sends it off to be processed. Porcelain is broken in to smaller pieces and used for filler in concrete within the town.
Blocks of milk cartons awaiting to be shipped out.
The plastic cubes are sent to a company called Dos Pinos, which shaves it in to smaller pieces and creates plastic ‘plywood’ to make desks and chairs for the schools in Tortuguero.
If a bottle of cooking oil or motor oil is collected with a bit left over, the bottle is drained and the oil is sent to San Jose to make biofuel.
Cooking and motor oil drained to use as biofuel in San Jose
Tortuguero Traveler 