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EPIB Trail
In recent decades, we've seen an unprecedented increase in plastic products in daily life, ranging from items like hairbrushes to the chairs we sit on. The critical issue at hand is that many governments around the world have not yet created recycling initiatives that have the capacity to handle all of the plastic being disposed of. In situations like this, we can't wait until it's too late for our governments to take action. It's important for people to work together to tackle the problem of plastic and other materials to ensure that future generations have a clean planet to live on. One such person is Óscar Andrés Méndez --an architect and social entrepreneur whose work in Colombia helped make a change for the better. For some context, a 50-year long conflict disrupted peaceful progress in Colombia between 1964 and 2016 (TRT World). "Seven million [people] were forced to leave their homes as victims of [said] civil war," and as a result, "about one-third of Colombian families have no home or live in poorly built temporary shelters" (TRT World). In addition to the
Volume 12, Issue 3
displacement of many people, the war ha s in cr ea sed p o ver t y l e ve l s, disproportionately affecting communities of African and indigenous descent (TRT World). In such communities, plastic products are frequently used as they are an inexpensive alternative to other materials. Unfortunately, the waste centers are often overwhelmed with the amount that is thrown away. In the city of Bogotá where Méndez is from, residents were sending 600 tons of
Méndez
