In the face of government inability to manage solid waste in eastern El Salvador, the Oriente Recicla initiative offers a sustainable solution. Journalist Jackeline Miranda tells the story of this program in this story created with a Central American Reporting Grant from the Latin American Solutions Journalism Fund, an initiative of El Colectivo 506. This piece was published by Distintas Latitudes on Nov. 27, 2024, and was adapted here for co-publication.
The clock reads 4:30 am. Dinora Alvarenga, 48, is already at the municipal garbage dump in the center of San Miguel, the largest and most prosperous city in the eastern region of El Salvador, about 138 kilometers from the country’s capital. At this hour, the weather is not yet warm enough for comfort; the smell of garbage mixes in the air with the sounds of trucks unloading trash.
Dinora is what is known in El Salvador as a “pepenadora,” a person who separates and recycles reusable waste to sell. It’s a job that the local Mayor’s Office should pay for, but it doesn’t. Dinora obtained a permit from the Mayor’s Office to recycle glass and then offered that permit to Oriente Recicla (The East Recycles), a small program promoted by the Migueleños en Acción Association. The initiative seeks to take advantage of the recyclable waste discarded by the 693,000 inhabitants of San Miguel.
Since its creation in 2021, Oriente Recicla has developed and established strategic alliances with citizens, the municipal government, and local companies—and it has become a local reference on recycling and circular economy.
Dinora has been working with Oriente Recicla since 2022, although a colleague says that she has been carrying out this type of work since she was very young. From 4 am to 3 pm every day, she works in the municipal garbage dump, separating and classifying the waste and then giving it to Oriente Recicla in exchange for groceries.
“I prepare the bottles and containers so that when they come to pick them up, they are clean,” she says.
The waste crisis in El Salvador and San Miguel
In El Salvador, plastics and organic waste usually end up in open-air dumps. In 2022, the “National Waste Diagnosis” carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) revealed that the country generates approximately 4,200 tons of waste per day, of which only 3,000 tons are collected. Much of the waste ends up in streams and rivers such as the Río Grande, which runs through the departments of San Miguel, Morazán and Usulután. Its waters are contaminated by feces, solid waste, and sediments that ultimately end up in the ocean.
The ministry states that not all municipalities comply with waste collection duties or implement educational projects, especially in rural areas, despite the existence of the Law on Comprehensive Waste Management and Promotion of Recycling. In San Miguel, for example, where nearly 300 tons of waste are generated daily, the Uluazapa landfill—the largest in the city—has caused environmental and public health problems in nearby communities. The landfill has exceeded its capacity and caused fires that affected the health of hundreds of inhabitants of 12 communities.
In 2024, the Environmental Court of the eastern zone gave the mayor of San Miguel 10 days to resolve the serious problem of pollution caused by a fire in the landfill. It wasn’t the first time. In 2022, another fire that lasted several weeks led residents to request the permanent closure of the landfill.
The lack of coordination between Salvadoran municipalities and the Ministry of the Environment continues to be a challenge for waste collection and recycling. According to a diagnosis carried out this year by the MARN, one of the biggest challenges is the absence of adequate infrastructure for recyclable collection and processing. Although there are some private initiatives, coverage is uneven, and many rural areas lack organized systems for waste management.
This lack of social programs and public policies creates risks of soil, water, and air pollution—thus affecting not only the environment, but also communities’ quality of life. This situation is worsened by the growing volume of waste.
At the collection center, garbage trucks are constantly coming in and out. some arrive to drop off recyclable materials, while others take away everything that can’t be used. Jackeline Miranda / El Colectivo 506
Oriente Recicla
The collection center for the Oriente Recicla program is located six kilometers from the municipal garbage dump where Dinora collects glass. The center receives only waste that has been previously separated and suitable for recycling. Inside, collection coordinator Zulma Gómez and three other colleagues are in charge of the scene. Right now, for example, they are categorizing glass containers such as those collected by Dinora in the municipal garbage dump, so they can be sold to a Costa Rican company.
The Oriente Recicla program emerged as a community response to the lack of institutional attention to the garbage problem.
“We had a moment of saying: the institutions are not doing their job. Political parties offer us so much during campaigns, and in the end they do not deliver,” says Karla Paz, executive director of Migueleños en Acción, the association behind the project. “We saw that our city was becoming depressed, and not just socially. [People said,] ‘it doesn’t matter to us whether they destroy this or that.’ That was when we began to question our identity as Migueleños.”
Oriente Recicla works by creating recycling groups in the most populous communities in the city of San Miguel: Colonia Milagro de la Paz, La Presita, Ciudad Pacifica, and Cantón Miraflores, among others. Hand-in-hand with adults and young people, as well as companies and institutions, they collect, separate, and market recyclable waste such as plastics, aluminum, glass, cardboard, printed paper, electronics and cigarette butts. The project is sustained through the sale of all this waste.
So far, Dinora is their only collaborator in the municipal garbage dump. The rest of the recyclable waste is obtained through “green points”: sites created within the communities near homes, shops, and local institutions, where residents drop off waste that’s been separated and packaged in bags. Those in charge of the program collect them once or twice a week in a minibus called “La Wiki.” The shops on the collection route pay Oriente Recicla a fee that ranges between $15-25.
In El Salvador, mayors have to grant licenses to establishments that wish to recycle their waste, according to the Law of Comprehensive Waste Management and Promotion of Recycling. The law establishes that the municipalities must manage the waste generated in their territories and promote recycling services through local regulation.
“The Mayor’s Office frequently asks us if certain establishments have delivered their waste, since [if not] they receive complaints about it,” Karla explains. “When an establishment is affiliated with us, this gives them support, because they can demonstrate that they are giving us their materials [for recycling].”
Zulma Gómez is in charge of keeping a detailed record of all this. When someone enters the collection center, they write down their name, contact number, the types of materials delivered, and the weight of the waste. This helps the organization keep its own statistics to monitor the amount of waste that comes in—and everything that goes out to the various companies that buy from Oriente Recicla.
Since 2021, the program has acquired 60 members who deliver their waste periodically, in addition to the donations and aid they receive from local people, businesses and institutions. Between October 2021 and the beginning of 2024, the project collected 246 tons of waste.
Environmental education as a pillar of change
The project, which also offers consulting services to community associations and other local initiatives, has incorporated environmental education as a central component, offering workshops and training in the communities. Through the creation of its collection center and its “green points,” Oriente Recicla has raised awareness and strengthened waste management in several communities. The initiative emphasize the culture of the 3Rs: Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse.
“Today, there is a whole movement to dignify this work, which is essential to prevent the pollution we generate,” says Karla. “It is very important to understand that recycling is part of a broader concept—the circular economy—that helps us not only to be responsible consumers, but also to properly manage our waste and waste.”
Zulma Gómez, program coordinator, adds: “Thanks to my work here, my children can study and I can raise my family.”
The active participation of the community, especially adults and youth, is key to the program. The inclusion of these groups not only facilitates the logistics of recycling, but also strengthens the sense of belonging and responsibility in the community. All of this increases the long-term sustainability of the program.
“We decided that we wanted to do a program in which we learned, first, how to handle garbage; second, find a mechanism to separate what is no longer useful from what can be recycled and reused; and third, carry out a massive campaign and alliances,” explains Karla.
Thus, the program relies on a multiplier effect.
“If there are 20 people in a community and five commit, the constant work of these five people projects the message to their neighbors and gets more people to join the cause,” she adds.
By integrating environmental education within the project, Oriente Recicla has promoted cultural change in the perception of recycling among those they train. This multiplier effect is evident in all age groups, but especially among older adults, who see the program as a way to leave a legacy.
“They say: ‘Yes, I’m leaving, but what will I leave behind?’” she says. “That sense of belonging, of roots, is what motivates them to act.”
To achieve this, this project seeks to adapt to the needs of each community. If a resident shows interest in implementing the program in their community, the team visits to learn how waste is managed there and consults other residents about the best schedules and teaching methods.
They also adapt to the educational level of the participants, working even with people who cannot read or write but who understand the negative impact of waste. To facilitate understanding, the program uses videos as an educational tool. However, the team says that teaching material on environmental problems in the eastern area are scarce, due to a lack of interest from the government.
Yader Ruiz, professor of biology at the University of El Salvador, highlights the importance of this entire process.
“It is essential that environmental education begins in primary school and is reinforced at higher levels, to cultivate a culture of recycling and respect for the environment,” says Yader.
The problem of sustainability
In addition to charging for the collection and sale of recyclable waste and donations, Oriente Recicla constantly seeks cooperation funds aimed at environmental issues. But it’s still not enough. Right now, the project can afford to employ only four people, rewarding a fifth with supplies. That’s why project organizers continue to look for ways to overcome the logistical difficulties they face.
One of the most important is the lack of adequate infrastructure.
“We are operating on land that practically becomes a swamp during the rainy season. This complicates our access to the site, and our work inside the collection center,” says Karla Paz. The organization also needs tmore personnel and collection vehicles. “We have only one minibus with a capacity of 1.5 tons, and we can only make the collection route three times a week.”
Furthermore, Karla highlights the lack of promotion and dissemination of the program. Despite the organization’s agreement with the Mayor’s Office that commits local companies through operating licenses, participation has not been broad enough.
“Not everyone is as involved as they should, which affects the scope of the project,” she concludes.
However, the fact that in just three years, a team of four people with limited resources has managed to recycle more than 240 tons of waste—and made various communities of San Miguel more aware of the importance of recycling—is a great first step in a country that’s still far behind on this issue.
