Projects
Marea Verde is created with the primary objective of helping solve the waste problem on our Panamanian coasts, which despite the efforts of the Municipality of Panama and San Miguelito, and the Authority of Urban and Residential Cleaning (AAUD), continues to increase every day as well as to endanger the health of our seas and mangroves.
To ensure that the efforts and resources invested in cleaning and education have a greater impact in the future, it is necessary to seek solutions that prevent waste contamination from reaching our rivers and therefore our coasts, beaches and mangroves.
This includes helping to create policies and laws that help prevent contamination and generate pilot waste management projects.
These are our current projects:
Our first project consists of the installation of our “B.o.B” (Barrier or Garbage, Barrera o Basura in Spanish) barrier on the Matías Hernández River. B.o.B is a floating barrier that traps the trash that this riverbed brings, preventing it from reaching the coast and therefore the mangrove swamp, as well as facilitating its collection.
This is a system that has been tested in other countries and so far has been effective in Panama. It is expected that it can be replicated in other rivers that present this same problem.
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Reciclar EsCultura was the first national sculpture contest made from garbage collected from rivers, beaches, seas, mangroves and coasts. The main objective was to increase awareness of the impact we have on our natural environment, which with our actions we can change it from negative to positive.
The mangrove recovery and cleaning project consists of the collection of the waste that has been deposited among the mangroves for more than 15 years, causing almost irreparable damage to these important ecosystems.
It is believed that these residues come mainly from the communities bordering the middle and upper basin of the Matías Hernández River, going down through it, reaching the coast and accumulating with other waste that is brought by the sea currents.
According to data from the Municipality of Panama, around 2,500 tons of waste are generated in the country daily, of which less than 5% is recycled, and that approximately 300 tons of waste reach the sea every day from rivers, streams and of the sewer system.
According to these figures and studies by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), they place Panama as the second country in Latin America with the highest production of waste per inhabitant per day.
Bob and Garzón are two characters inspired on our B.o.B barrier and the herons that live around them.
Finally, a plastic and a mangrove bird have something in common and they are here to tell about their experiences. This unusual friendship tries to combat the problem of garbage that affects our mangroves and oceans.
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This project aims to test the operation of the construction of roads made with a mixture of asphalt and recycled plastic. Approximately 6 metric tons of plastic were needed for every 500m of road. As a pilot, two roads were paved, one in Vacamonte and the other in Chiriquí. This project will help reduce the amounts of plastic accumulated in garbage dumps, using it to build something productive and functioning for society. In the same way, it serves as a guide for the law project 687 that establishes the use of recyclable materials in the construction of asphalt roads..
The Dermar Arat XXI scarves, which means Green Tide in Guna language, are inspired by the renowned Guna molas and their close relationship with terrestrial and marine nature.
This collection incorporates a variant on the original designs by representing plastic waste along with the traditional elements of molas.
In this way, we can demonstrate how the inadequate disposal of waste affects our environment, flora, fauna and even our cultural roots.