Colombian recycling influencer on her way to Denmark

Marce la Recicladora  is a household name in Colombia. She has made a social media career out of reporting on recycling in Colombia. With almost 600.000 followers on Instagram alone she has managed to catch the attention of her country men and women with the most unlikely of topics. Now she is attending Danida Fellowship Centre’s learning programme “Solid Waste Management” 8 – 26 September and will be reporting about her experiences in Denmark.

By Mikkel Hall

Sara Samaniego is the real name behind the influencer known as Marce la Recicladora. Sara fights for the respect and recognition of Colombia’s recyclers. Recyclers are people who collect recyclable waste from bins and containers across Colombian cities – and in many other cities around the world. They pull hand-drawn carts through the streets, gathering enough recyclable material each day to survive.

Sara is on a mission to improve working conditions for recyclers while promoting a circular economy and environmental protection. Her mission has now brought her to a Danida Fellowship Centre learning programme on solid waste management. Here she will learn from Denmark’s waste management practices while sharing her own experiences through social media. The hope is that what she learns will help her inspire Colombians to build a circular economy with fair and dignified conditions for recyclers.

Follow Marce la Recicildora’s reports from Denmark on @marcelarecicladora on Instagram

One of Marce’s most impactful projects is through her NGO, Reciclamores, where she works to improve the quality of life for informal recyclers whose daily work makes it possible for 16% of Bogotá’s waste to be recycled. These often-overlooked workers play a vital role in the city’s waste management system and contribute significantly to environmental sustainability.

Sara is not alone in her mission. As part of a strategic sector cooperation, experts from Colombia’s capital Bogotá are working with their counterparts in the City of Copenhagen to improve recycling systems for the city’s 10 million inhabitants. There is still a long way to go. Today, the vast majority of household waste in Bogotá ends up in the massive local landfill, Doña Juana. This landfill represents a tremendous loss of resources and causes severe harm to the local environment.

With the support of Danida Fellowship Centre learning programmes and strong partnerships with committed Colombians like Sara, this cooperation aims to revolutionise recycling in Bogotá.

Read about Marce la Recicladora’s work in the New York Times
How a Colombian Influencer Made Recycling Cool

Learn more about Doña Juana and the recyclers in Bogotá

The first steps of a waste management revolution in Bogotá

Next stop Copenhagen in Bogotá’s waste management revolution

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