As you may have read in my previous article on John Benus, he is an American who is in love with Mexico and wants to encourage others to keep it clean.
Before he moved here, he was an Adopt A Highway team leader for over 20 years, cleaning up the streets of Marin County, California. He’s now lived many, many years in Mexico, and successfully created a guerra contra la basura, or war against litter. The project started in Talpa de Allende, but the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Office has asked for him to continue his work here in PV. The overall goal for this project is to make the streets, rivers, and oceans of PV clean and litter-free.
Today I want to talk about the prototype Trash Containers designed by John Benus that have been expiramentally placed in three different locations in Puerto Vallarta. The locations are in front of the Main Pier in Old Town, on the pedestrian trail opposite Macro Plaza, and at the bus stop in front of Sam's Club.
They were designed so that they could not be tipped over by dogs or raccoons plus not be easily moved or stolen by placing 30 kilos of cement at the bottom. To ensure their stability each container had rebar placed in the cement that protrudes 2 inches,that prevents the cement from being removed. Once the cement dried holes were drilled just above the cement to facilitate drainage for rain and easy power washing.
Each container has labeling in Spanish & English indicating what should be placed in each. Plastic bags are also being used in each.
The RED containers are for recyclable aluminum cans
The BLUE containers are for plastic & glass
The GREEN containers are for food scraps, food wrappers, & paper trash
Getting people to read and heed these instructions will probably take some time, however we must begin to first convince people to use these rather than the streets, rivers, or vacant lots.
If you'd like to know where to purchase these containers plus the exact procedure and labeling, send your request to:
Subject Line "Containers"
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John Benus
GUERRA CONTRA LA
BASURA/Puerto Vallarta
Creator & Director
415-331-0100 USA
388-105-0786 Mexico (WhatsApp)
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