– Unprecedented joint effort between the Bepensa Foundation, state authorities, and the community to carry out intensive sanitation work in the ecotourism paradise
Isla Arena, Campeche, September 24, 2024. - Through a collaborative effort between Bepensa, the Bepensa Foundation, Campeche State Government authorities, and community residents, the Isla Arena PET Collection Center was inaugurated in Campeche, with the goal of contributing to the sanitation and environmental protection of this ecotourism destination.
The opening of the new collection center brought with it an intense mobilization of island residents to collect waste for recycling, benefiting the environment and the residents' quality of life.
This is, explained the director of the Bepensa Foundation, Carlos Martín Briceño, a circular economy process that benefits everyone involved in this effort, whose main purpose is to cleanse, improve, and protect the environment for current and future generations.
This joint effort was made possible thanks to Bepensa's collaboration with public officials from the Ministry of the Environment, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Energy, led by Joselyn Durán Murrieta, as well as academics from the Chiná Institute of Technology, representatives from Carey Ecotourism Services, and island residents whose primary activities are fishing and ecotourism.
The island's PET Collection Center, facilitated by WRI (World Resources Institute), has the capacity to store up to ten tons of PET waste. Its installation also boosts the economy of several families in the community, which in turn translates into a healthier environment, a virtuous cycle. It also joins the more than 50 coastal PET collection centers the foundation operates in the three states of the Yucatán Peninsula. All collected PET will be transported to the recently opened PetStar collection center in Campeche, and then transported in special vehicles to the PetStar processing plant located in Toluca, State of Mexico.
Bepensa, as part of the Mexican Coca-Cola Industry, is a shareholder in PetStar, the largest food-grade PET recycling plant in the world, 100 percent Mexican, which is a global benchmark in the circular economy, according to reports from the National Association of the Plastics Industry (ANIPAC) and the Chairman of the Board of APR (Association of Plastics Recyclers) based in Washington.
The state and island government's Semabicce (the municipal government's municipal government) also held the Circular Economy Fair in the island's Multipurpose Room, where an endless line of people brought their waste to participate in a barter for basic food items, school supplies, clothing, and books.
At the fair, island residents also learned about the impact of improperly disposing of plastic waste and its impact on ecosystems, the indiscriminate disposal of fishing nets that harms marine species, and the processes involved in making biodigesters, among other environmental education topics.
Early this morning, executives from Bepensa, the Bepensa Foundation, state and island authorities, as well as Carey Ecotourism Services, academics, and residents undertook sanitation and reforestation efforts in the northwestern coastal area of the island.
At the site, in addition to collecting waste, participants planted the first 250 saplings of woody beach grape trees on the coastal dune, which will help counteract erosion, which is natural due to tides, rain, and wind, according to the department's Director of Conservation, Jorge Berzunza Chío.
These seedlings will be given to the population to grow in the dunes, which will help retain sand and allow various turtle species to lay their eggs, among other environmental benefits.
Also participating in these environmental awareness activities were Erika Ceballos Berzunza, Bepensa's Corporate Affairs and Communications representative in Campeche; Felipe Solís Mier y Terán, Bepensa's Special Projects Manager; Eduardo Canul Ucán, the Calkiní City Council delegate on the island; and Orianna Montes de Oca Hernández, the coordinator of the waste collection brigades.
Bepensa is a socially responsible company that unites for the world we want by continuing to positively impact the communities where it operates with conservation and natural preservation projects and programs.
