Mission
Help protect the environment of the East Cape of Baja California Sur through educational programs with the imperative to reduce, reuse and recycle. Through demonstration and education, help all the members of our community: young and old, Mexican, ex-pats, and visitors to learn to be stewards of the precious environmental assets of the East Cape of Baja California Sur.
Our History
Our program began with the concept of cleaning up recyclable trash on the roads and in the arroyos, and to end the dumping of non-biodegradable household trash in the Basurero (landfill). Under the sponsorship of Yo Reciclo A.C., a recycling non-profit organization in San Jose del Cabo, Los Barriles volunteers organized and our grassroots initiative became known as East Cape Recycling (ECR).
In November 2009, Lynn Mirassou, unhappy that a recycling program did not exist in Los Barriles, arranged for a recycling vendor to service our community, and announced a Recycle Day and a drop-off location near the highway.
Many people were pleased to hear of the program and met Lynn near the highway with their recyclables. But when the recycling vendor did not come to pick up the recyclables collected, Lynn was faced with moving and managing all the recyclables on her own until she found another solution.
And that is how the process of learning to manage recyclables in the East Cape commenced.
From 2009 through 2014, ECR had to deliver recyclables to various vendors in San Jose, Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, each accepting different materials to process. This required the hiring of a truck and driver each month to transport our recyclables to these vendors.
With the success of the Recycling Program, ECR now collects the critical mass for a large recycling processor in La Paz to pick-up and transport our recyclables (for a fee) for processing. The cost of transporting recyclables today, as in the past, is paid by the donations collected each month from members of our community who recycle.
Through the generous donation by Theresa Comber and Shaun Speer of property and a loan to build concrete partitions, our community has a Recycling Center! It is located conveniently in the heart of Los Barriles, adjacent to Baja’s Resort on the East Cape. It is from this location, on Recycling Day, the first Thursday of each month (November – August) that recyclers bring their recycling and help crush, sort and pack the recyclables for transport.
Thank you for being interested in our project, and recycling! Please visit our Facebook page and our brand new Instagram to see the very latest news and updates.