Green Phenix - Creating a circular economy

Green Phenix and Coca-Cola recycle 33,280 bottles

WILLEMSTAD - At the end of last year, Green Phenix and Coca-Cola launched a joint campaign calling on the community to recycle plastic. This second version of the awareness campaign #maketheturtlesmile ensures that the materials do not go to waste. Instead, they are given a new life in the form of a locally manufactured product. On February 28^th, the second version closed with 33,280 bottles collected.

During this campaign, everyone was asked to bring their plastic bottles to Green Phenix in Sambil or at the Zeelandia pavilion. For every 25 bottles or aluminum cans that were handed in, the participants received a stamp. The stamps are used to save for fun, but also useful prizes. These prizes were made available by many local companies, such as Intertoys, De Dames, Flipside coupons; movie tickets from Cinemark; day passes from Kunuku Aqua Resort; entrance tickets for the caves of Hato and Xtreme Zone; STCC caps; all inclusive trips to Klein Curacao with the Miss Ann, D-bottles and custom 3D prints.

Because the campaign again was a great success, the collection for stamps is continued and in collaboration with Coca Cola, Sambil, Sea Turtle Conservation Curacao, Green Phenix will host a third version. The goal is to collect no less than 40,000 bottles before the end of June.

People can bring their plastic recyclables with numbers 1, 2 and 5 and aluminum cans to Green Phenix Sambil (next to the Caracasbaai entrance) from Monday to Saturday from 08:00 - 17:00 and at Green Phenix Pavilion Zeelandia Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The first version of #maketheturtlesmile was run in 2019 and collected 30,573 bottles and focused mainly on school students. This second edition of the campaign is more focused on individual participants. The 3^rd version will focus on collaboration.

The main goal of the awareness campaign is to make people aware that recycling is fun and that new products can be made from used materials and to stimulate them to actually recycle.

Links:

• http://www.greenphenix.com

At the beginning of 2020 Green Phenix was still operating from Sabine's backyard. In February the operations moved to Paviljoen Zeelandia and in July there was a second facility secured in preperation of some new machines being added to the organization. Unfortunately, it's taking a bit longer for the machines to be aquired, but the extra facility did enable us to grow the "Waste no More" work and learn project to 24 participants instead of 12, keeping the required social distance.

We formed some really good strategical partnerships and the amount of recyclables that we are collecting and processing on a monthly basis is rapidly increasing. 

We're extremely proud we've made it through 2020 and we have ambitious plans for 2021.

We're aiming to build a Jumbo printer in collaboration with VanPlestik and we aim to produce lots of building bricks with moulds made by RecycleRebuild and create a recycling makerspace in an even bigger space than we are currently operating. We have everything in house to make this a huge succes, but the funding and support will determine how fast we will be able to realize our plans and make an even bigger impact on sustainable development on our island by creating a circular inclusive economy in the Caribbean.

The struggle to find funding is especially hard, since there are so many people in need. But we are confident that our project adds value to 15 of the 17 SDG's and has an enormous potential for global impact. So one way or another we will find a way to continue, but if you have some extra to spare and you'de like to show some support to our persistant team, a donation in this time would be highly appreciated!

We're extremely grateful for all the support that we have received in the last year and we're looking forward to creating a better 2021!