Challenge
Quito a Reciclar (Let’s Get Quito Recycling) is a campaign for integrated solid waste management, which seeks the participation of all members of the public in environmental recovery. The project offers some 200 families of ex-miners work now in waste management and in the daily collection of recyclable waste in Quito, which offers them a fixed wage and non-hazardous work. Faced with the need to strengthen the programme and ensure its financial viability, the IDB and EMASEO (the state-owned enterprise responsible for solid waste management in Quito) appointed R4S to achieve this goal.
Our solution
As part of strengthening the Quito a Reciclar programme, the R4S team conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the programme to provide a full understanding of its current situation. R4S planned specific technical, operational and social actions to improve areas such as the operational efficiency of the recyclable waste collection companies created, the organisation of waste pickers and public participation, with a view to strengthening the project and expanding it to other areas of the city. Lastly, a financial sustainability analysis was conducted on the Quito a Reciclar programme, in order to come up with steps for securing investment and operational resources.
Impact
Through this project, R4S sought to strengthen the Quito a Reciclar programme for the next 10 years, by setting out strategic steps to take that specify where and how to take action; this enabled the project to achieve results whose impact will be sustained over the long term.
