GUATEMALA
Clean La Barrita
La Barrita is a coastal village in Guatemala, cushioned between lush tropical vegetation and the shimmering Pacific Ocean. The village is home to a small but vibrant population, where fishing is a cornerstone of the local economy and lifestyle.
GUATEMALA
Clean La Barrita
La Barrita is a coastal village in Guatemala, cushioned between lush tropical vegetation and the shimmering Pacific Ocean. The village is home to a small but vibrant population, where fishing is a cornerstone of the local economy and lifestyle.
The story
This tranquil village hasn’t had proper support from the local government when it comes to dealing with waste. Before the Clean La Barrita project, locals would either dump their plastic waste along river banks — which gets flushed into the sea when it rains — or send it to a dump site.
Landfills pose a particular threat to the local community. Not only has the main landfill in the area replaced the green area where children used to play, but the leaked pollution is also affecting the health of nearby trees, meaning they no longer bear fruit.
On top of this, workers in the landfill site burn trash throughout the day, forcing residents to use face masks to avoid inhaling smoke. According to Myra, a local in La Barrita:
“The landfill creates a lot of toxic smoke, which means we don’t spend a lot of time outdoors anymore. When they burn tires, we see small black fragments in the air, which get into our food if we’re eating outdoors.”
The landfill has also polluted the local drinking water, turning it into a yellowish, salty, liquid. This paints quite a grim picture — and it’s exactly why we stepped in to help clean up La Barrita.
Integrating change in the community
Like many of our projects, the main focus of Clean La Barrita is to collect non-recyclable plastic from the area.
Before we started work here, the community relied on local collectors to gather waste from households and the environment. But this system only accounted for recyclable materials — mostly PET bottles — meaning any non-recyclable waste was still getting sent to landfills, littered, or burned.
That’s why we teamed up with local waste operator Tidey Ocean, which has been working in the area since 2021. Together, we’re overcoming the waste issue in La Barrita — while they recover the recyclable materials, we’re dealing with the non-recyclables.
Today, we collect waste from roughly 100 people in the village (as well as their families) to deal with plastic pollution and prevent landfill waste from building up.
Impacting the community
The community is central to our Clean La Barrita project, and is the backbone of our operations. In fact, our collection team is made up of the people most affected by the problem — that’s why we want to give back to them for their hard work.
We make sure that all full-time workers on this project not only have a decent salary but also get access to healthcare. Plus, together with Tidey Ocean, we carry out a financial planning and entrepreneurship course for both employees and collectors.
There are also support systems in place to help employees with their careers outside of collection work, such as helping some of the workers start a pig or chicken farm to subsidize their income.
It’s also important for us to consider the future of plastic waste in this area, which is why we work with a number of schools in the area. Led by Tidey Ocean, these sessions encourage children to bring plastic to school. The school is then paid in exchange for the waste, which helps fund community projects for the children.
Let's make a difference in Guatemala
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Our impact
Clean Nature
We collect 10,000 pounds (lb) of non-recyclable plastic per month, preventing it from being burned, sent to landfill, or littered in the environment. We’re also looking into more community initiatives, such as mangrove restoration in the nearby area, and awareness activities with children and adults.
Clean Communities
Everyone in the La Barrita community benefits from our work with Tidey Ocean. Not only are we keeping the area clean, but local collectors are paid per pound of plastic collected. They also receive bonuses to help them earn stoves, fridges, and tuition scholarships. As an additional way to bring everyone together, Tidey Ocean has also hosted movie nights where anyone from the community can come along.
Clean Jobs
One of our biggest priorities is to make sure all employees are safe and healthy during operations. That’s why we’ve integrated AI into our app to help spot health-and-safety compliance violations, meaning we can see if people aren’t wearing the right safety items. The number of people wearing shoes, rather than sandals, increased dramatically once we implemented this feature.
Clean Oceans
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean on the planet. By collecting plastic waste from La Barrita, we’re preventing pollution from building up, getting littered in the environment, and washed into this precious ocean.
Our collection process
Between three and 10 employees work on the Clean La Barrita project, as well as roughly 100 independent collectors from the area.
The collectors gather waste from the villagers or the environment in exchange for money, and the plastic is then organized and processed to make sure it’s fed back into the economy.
Once collected, the plastic is sorted into recyclable and non-recyclable waste — recyclable materials are sold to local recycling facilities, and non-recyclable materials are sent for co-processing where they’ll be utilized as an energy source.
And since the team on the ground are all locals from La Barrita, the community is at the heart of change. In a recent interview, employee Eva Hernandez said: “I’ve seen a lot of change in our environment. I collect in many different areas where there used to be a lot of plastic waste. Since we started collecting, I see a huge difference — it’s much cleaner.”
She also goes on to explain that her neighbors are now helping with collecting by saving up bottles, and have “told us that for them this is beneficial too because they don’t want to burn plastic, so they support me and I support them by removing the waste.”
Collection operator: Tidey Ocean
This project wouldn’t be possible without our collection operator Tidey Ocean.
Tidey Ocean is on a mission to not only stop plastic from entering the ocean, but to also provide steady jobs and opportunities to those experiencing poverty in developing nations.
The business was created to tackle the problems of poverty and plastic pollution at the same time — and Clean La Barrita is a perfect example of how they’re doing this.
Tidey Ocean’s ethos certainly aligns with CleanHub’s values, making them a perfect fit for this project. Together, we can solve the plastic pollution problem while building solutions on the ground in vulnerable areas, and make the community the center of the project.
Let's make a difference in Guatemala
Your brand can support our impact and help to expand our operations in Guatemala.
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