Boquete Recycles

 Boquete is a picturesque mountain town in the highlands of the Chiriquí province in Panama. Known as the “Bread Basket of Panama”, this region is recognized for its abundance in agricultural crops. Boquete’s fame also comes from its virgin jungles, inactive Volcano Barú, gourmet coffee production, and, above all, the flowers. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Festival of Flowers and Coffee had been bringing over 100,000 tourists to Boquete each year. The flower garden is still open to visitors, but the rest of the festival events are postponed for now.

The beautiful landscapes and abundant wildlife are a source of great pride for the local population - a diverse group made up primarily of indigenous Ngäbes, Panamanian Latinos, and immigrants from around the world. It comes as no surprise that a community who cares deeply for its flora and fauna would also be interested in community-wide sustainability efforts, such as recycling.

Map of Panama (Boquete in the red box)

In the same venue where the flower garden of the Festival of Flowers and Coffee is located, you can also find a recycling drive every Friday. Anyone can come and drop off their plastic, cardboard, glass, metal, Tetra Pak and paper items to be recycled. Participants will be greeted by friendly faces of City Hall workers and volunteers alike who receive the materials and sort them before taking them to third-party locations where they will be reused or recycled.

Recycling collection center.

Before taking the materials to a private recycling center, the municipality offers the materials to any person or company in the area who may need it for a project. It’s always better to reuse materials than to recycle them, as it uses less energy in transporting and processing those materials. The next step is to load a truck with the cleaned and sorted materials, and take them to private recycling centers where they usually provide a small monetary compensation. These returns help to cover some costs of the recycling drive, though they do not cover all of it, so donations and volunteers are always welcome.

Volunteers sorting the materials into white bags.

The recycling drive is currently led by the Boquete City Hall, with some help from volunteers. A local high school occasionally sends student volunteers to work as part of a social service curriculum. Receiving and sorting the materials is a laborious job since the drive is from 9am – 2pm, and they continuously receive boxes full of materials during that period. The municipal workers and volunteers usually stay for a few hours after the collection ends, organizing piles of materials to be transported elsewhere.

This initiative was started about two years ago by a small group of local professionals, mostly women, who collected recycling in their free time after work. Originally, one woman went house to house picking up recyclable materials throughout the town. Then, they formed the group Boquete Environmental Community Association 3R OBC (ACAB 3R OBC), and they obtained a booth at the local fairground where the recycling drive is held. ACAB 3R OBC always had support from the City Hall, but as the recycling drive grew in popularity, it became too arduous for the volunteer group, and the City Hall became more involved in the project.

The plastics must be sorted into subcategories as indicated by the number printed on the container. Plastics are by far the material that is most received at this recycling center.

ACAB 3R OBC and the City Hall are always looking to expand the ecological initiative in Boquete. This month, they’ll test a pilot program with the local businesses. They understand that for some business owners, delivering recyclables to the fairgrounds can add additional costs and cut profits, so as an incentive for local stores and restaurants to participate in the recycling drive, municipal workers will be organizing a collection truck to pick up the materials on location for these businesses. Community engagement and behavior change are key aspects of the recycling program.

Inside the corridors of the recycling collection center

Recycling is always a better solution than landfill dumping. Check out the options in your community for recycling. If you live in Boquete, check out ACAB 3R OBC on Instagram (@acab3robc), on Facebook (Boquete Recicla), or the City Hall’s Instagram account (@alcaldia_boquete), and see how can you get involved!

I’d like to give a big thank you to the people of ACAB 3R OBC and the Boquete City Hall for the work you do and for taking time to interview with me.

Note: In 2018, Panama passed a law prohibiting the use of polyethylene plastic bags, the bags commonly used in stores at checkout. Starting July 1, 2021, a new law will go into effect also banning the use of certain single-use plastics, such as: Plastic ear swabs, plastic laundry covers, plastic balloon holding rods, plastic toothpicks, plastic cocktail sticks, plastic candy sticks and plastic rings on cans.