REKABA: Transforming waste into opportunities

A fundamental part of our philosophy is to integrate the value of conserving, preserving, and caring for the planet in everything we do by being an active part of it.

We have been working for more than 5 years and during all this time we have been focused on turning waste into high-quality products and opportunities for people who need them most. We transform materials such as old fishing nets, carbon fiber from discarded boats, jeans, and wood from fallen trees into high-quality sunglasses, made in a completely different way.

On the other hand, our great friends of Balloon Latam are experts in articulating communities to build resilient communities through entrepreneurship.

We wanted to get together and show that through collaboration and working together we can achieve much bigger goals than working alone. We wanted to use this same logic of the two companies so that anyone in the world can have access to opportunities from waste.

As Karün, we want to pass on our experience of giving value to waste so that anyone can do it and therefore we created an NGO together with Balloon Latam (which is 50% of Karün and 50% of Balloon Latam) - this foundation is called REKABA. 

 

REKABA: "Transforming Waste into Opportunities"

A project that aims to empower, educate, and generate community and innovative products of high added value around the reuse, reduction, and recycling of waste.

"Our bet is to become a meeting place for the community where different initiatives that generate opportunities through the craft of the plastic converge and, at the same time, promote the development of good sustainable environmental practices over time."

- Konstanze Straub, REKABA director.

Given the problems detected and the objective we have in mind, we add to REKABA, pioneers worldwide in the matter of converting waste and transforming waste, such as the Dutch initiative Precious Plastic

We have decided to develop our first center in the Los Lagos Region, Chile in particular, since both companies had had an approach in different sectors of the region: the Llanquihue lake and its surroundings, as well as Puelo and Cochamó. For this reason, we have had access to the local reality and to the existing problems in the area, many of them directly related to the environment and the development of micro-entrepreneurship.

REKABA's goal is to "Change the perspective of what waste is". That is, that people gradually understand the tremendous value and potential of waste and think once and twice before throwing them into landfills or dumps.

Taking this into account, we devised a program that has both environmental awareness and practical workshops that allow participants to learn to work with waste as raw materials that give way to an infinity of possible new products. An old plastic bottle or a plastic bucket can be transformed in the site by the community itself in an iPhone case, in a flowerpot, in a glass or a lamp ... Adding value to the garbage locally. 

We started with plastics, which are a tremendous problem nowadays in our country and in the world. In Chile it is estimated that 12% of the garbage generated by each person comes from plastics and whose management directly affects the ecosystem, causing serious consequences in soils and oceans.

We realized that the "Recycling" issue is not a priority for people and this can be much more dramatic in vulnerable segments, either because they lack information on the subject or because they do not have access to the logistics behind the recycling chain. In addition to this, there is evidently a social need to promote new jobs and job opportunities that relate to the environmental problems and challenges of this century. 

Given the problems detected and the objective we have in mind, we invited to participate in REKABA, pioneers worldwide in the matter of turning waste and transforming it, such as the Dutch initiative Precious Plastic.

With the participation of Precious Plastic, who are already in Puerto Varas, Chile working together with the community, we have the possibility to learn an innovative and transformative methodology for our community and society. 

We feel that the current involvement of those who are participating in the program is enormous and that the visit of these experts, will not only lay new foundations for how things are done around waste in Puerto Varas but also show a case of success to the country in a circular economy initiative that also generates positive impacts in social and environmental matters. 

What is Precious Plastic?

"We transform plastic waste into valuable things."

Precious Plastic is a project offering solutions to the dramatic problem of plastic pollution. Their goal is to socially (re)valorize plastic in order to eliminate its waste altogether, reduce the demand for new plastic, close its material loops, and educate people around the world.

Its strategy is to make recycling equipment, knowledge, and infrastructures available in every corner of the planet. To achieve this they provide the required know-how for DIY-machines, techniques, and molds to turn plastic waste into new products.

Precious Plastic was started in 2013 by Dave Hakkens and is now at its third version counting on dozens of people working on the project, remotely or on-site.

"Precious Plastic is a global community of hundreds of people working towards a solution to plastic pollution. Knowledge, tools, and techniques are shared online, for free. So everyone can start (yes, you too!)".

You can learn more about them on their website: www.preciousplastic.com