Everyone has a responsibility. We live in a remote area with no public services like in the bigger cities where a company comes twice a week to collect waste. Here, we must find our own solutions to the garbage by first reducing it, then trying to recycle it, and if it cannot be recycled, we must dispose of it in the most responsible way.

This is why at Leona Amarga we collaborate with a local company that helps other companies classify the majority of the materials we use, such as metal, aluminum cans, glass, and plastic, to later be collected by the same company and recycled.

Separation of materials

On a daily basis, we separate all our waste:

Food waste and organic materials are collected and mixed into our compost, which is later used as a plant fertilizer for our organic garden.

The cans are cleaned and the label is removed

Glass and plastic are being separated

Waste that cannot be recycled is separated and sent to Puerto Natales.

It takes more time to separate everything, but when it becomes a habit always to do it, it is just part of a daily process. Then a couple of times during the year, the company comes by to recollect all the materials.

Removal of old fence wires

In the month of November 2022, the same company helped us remove, classify, clean, and recycle old fence wire, remnants of a large fire that happened in 2005. The fire burned about 15,000 hectares and affected both the national park, Torres del Paine, and the property of Estancia Laguna Amarga. The Estancia had their area fenced due to the livestock activities, but all the fence posts were completely burned and only the wire remained.

With a compressor machine, the company collects the old wires, compresses them, and makes them into a bale of metal. It is then sent to Santiago, where it is fired in a metal furnace. That way, it does not end up in municipal landfills, where the waste simply piles up and is harmful to the nearby environment and the local fauna.

There is more to be done, and we are always looking into ways of improving the garbage issue. We try to reuse as much as possible, and the new signs we have put up asking people to drive with precaution, are also made of reused material. The containers, where we live and operate, are also made of reused containers and isolated with old fence pickets that we collected.

When we have visitors here, we always inform about the recycling work we do to create more awareness, and hopefully inspire people to also do a personal effort, reducing or recycling materials that normally are not considered useful anymore.

Photo credit: Eduardo Hernandez