Mission Atitlán: preserving one of the most beautiful lakes in the world 

Atitlán is a lake in Guatemala located in the department of Sololá.

It is the livelihood of many inhabitants of the surrounding villages and is known for its fauna and flora.

“El Atitlán”, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, is faced with a harsh reality: the increasing amount of waste entering its waters.

A group of Guatemalan women has now decided to face this challenge.

It has been working for more than five years to collect recyclable waste to prevent it from entering the waters.

They have made it their mission to preserve this national treasure.

Nestled in the foothills of three volcanoes, Atitlán is the third-largest freshwater lake in Guatemala and has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

Its name dates back to the Maya and means “the place where rainbows get their colors.”

The beauty of its surroundings has made it one of the most important tourist attractions in the country and the region.

However, it is much more than that for the people who live there.

“Lake Atitlán is our life because you can’t live without the lake,” Santos Tepaz, an Atitlán Recicla cooperative member, told CNN en Español.

The lake and its surroundings are his home and source of food.

However, they face a major challenge: the increasing amount of waste that ends up there, affecting the water quality and the environment’s biodiversity.

A group of women decided to take action in the face of this reality.

The result is Atitlán Recicla, an organization that, in about six years, has collected about 1,500 tons of recyclable materials from the lake itself and the surrounding communities.

“The project began in 2017 and had two main objectives: a social one, namely the creation of income and employment opportunities for women in the region, for women in the catchment area of Lake Atitlán, and an ecological one, namely the conservation and protection of the lake,” explains Darlyn Salguero, director of Atitlán Recicla.

The work of these 61 women is not easy.

They go from street to street, from homes, schools, and businesses.

They collect materials that can be recycled and also raise awareness among their neighbors.

The cooperative’s work is based on waste management and raising awareness among the local population.

“We’ve raised environmental awareness and education, but we’ve also shown the population alternatives so they can participate in the recycling chain,” Salguero said.

They separate items by the material they are made of – PET, cardboard, or glass, for example – and clean them by hand so they can be sold to recyclers, where the process continues so they can be reused.

In 2021, the initiative was transformed into a cooperative of women recyclers, which Salguero says is the first of its kind in Central America.

Their future goal is to add more value to these materials to make their commercialization more successful.

A PROJECT WITH A GENDER FOCUS

According to some members, Atitlán Recicla is also a tool for empowering women in a community where, as they explain, “a lot of male chauvinism” and being a woman can become a barrier to accessing job opportunities.

“The project has helped women in the region empower themselves, do teamwork, develop leadership skills, drive change in their communities, create employment opportunities, and, most importantly, raise awareness,” Salguero says.

In a region where it is often more difficult for women to integrate into the labor market, Atitlán Recicla offers them an opportunity.

Some participating women have other professions, such as craftswomen or weavers, which they continue to practice.

Working with waste has thus become a second and increasingly stable source of income.

For Tepaz, the mission is key.

Just as the lake is her life, she says, it is her duty to take care of it.

“It is our responsibility to take care of our environment as well.”