Hugo Beras sought to make a difference with an environmental awareness campaign. Beras seeks to be elected mayor for the National District for the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) in the 16 February 2020 municipal election.
He offered toys to capital city residents that brought him used plastics for recycling. As a result of the campaign more than 500 people gathered on Saturday, 4 January 2020 at the citizen center set up between Av. Núñez de Cáceres and Av. Rómulo Betancourt to trade large bags with plastics they had collected for toys in time for the Three Kings holiday. Beras stressed the campaign seeks to create a culture of recycling so that fewer plastics pollute rivers, streams and coasts. “Plastic is a problem that affects us all. Our children can see an example of valuable participation and understand that things have to be earned,” Beras said about the effort.
“We have had an extraordinary and different result. For the first time in the Dominican Republic, we give value to plastic. Here people are exchanging plastic bottles for dolls, carts, bicycles and skateboards and are coming with their children to get them involved in a responsible and civic way. So we can have a different city,” Beras said.
“Toys for Plastics” shows that it is possible to make citizen education policies about plastics recycling and care for the environment. The collected plastics will be recycled by the company Rizek Vidal Recyclers, which is presided by Jorge Rizek.
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El Caribe
7 January 2020