P17433 -Spring Break Trip to Nicaragua
Cities Visited Managua-Pop. 2 million (2 days) Leon- Pop. 200,000 (3 hours) El Sauce-Pop. 30,000 (4 days)
What We Did During the Week…….. Toured Managua and El Sauce to get a history of traditions and landmarks Interviewed Small Business Owners to develop our business model Met with the El Sauce Waste Management Office Toured the dump Visited some 4 Walls Families and toured some houses Helped teach some English Classes Met with a recycling company in Managua to get a possible partner for our process
Touring Managua History and Religion Play a Large Part in the Culture. Heavily influenced by the Revolution Sandino-Major political figure in Revolution Revolution colors, monuments, and symbols can be seen throughout Managua
Marta’s Story At 16 years old, Marta had the opportunity to be a part of the Nicaraguan Revolution. As part of a literacy initiative for the country, she left Managua and went to a small village in the mountains to teach 9 grown men how to read and write. With thousands of other young people helping the initiative, the government did not support literacy workers. The workers were targeted by the government and often times killed for educating the people. One victim was Marta’s neighbor. She finished teaching her students and discovered a passion for teaching. Marta now teaches at a French School in Managua.
Touring El Sauce Town used to be called Valle De Guayabal Story of Santo Cristo de Esquipula (Black Christ) Santo Cristo de Esquipula found in a Sauce Tree hence the name El Sauce Heavily influenced by religion Gigantic Festival with hundreds of thousands of people every January
Meeting Small Business Owners: Over the course of the week we met with…… Bicycle Shop Owner Clothing Business Owner El Chele (Washing Machine Repair) Molino (Coffee/Corn/Beef grinding business) 4 Walls Construction Manager Someone who used to collect plastic bottles Carpenter Welder/motorcycle Repairman Forge Leonidas (Refrigerator Repairman)
The Bicycle Innovator: Alejandro (Alex) Solano owns a bicycle shop in El Sauce. He repairs broken bicycles, works on new bicycles, and invents new creations using bicycles. He has invented a 4 wheeled bicycle, bicycle powered machines, and works extensively on three wheeled bike taxis used throughout the town. Alex will be a great partner moving forward for making our machine bicycle powered.
The Bottle Collector: We were able to track down someone who used to collect bottles to sell to Managua. She collected for a few years and liked the initiative of cleaning up El Sauce and being able to reuse a product. She stopped because the company she sold to was no longer buying plastic. She was interested in the fact we were starting the initiative again and gave positive feedback to our shredding idea. She seems to share a similar sentiment to many of El Sauce’s residents who want to see a cleaner place to live.
Constructing a Better El Sauce: Pepe is a mason in the town of El Sauce and is the construction manager on site for all of 4 walls houses. He has been able to build over 100 houses for people and is constantly receiving applications to build more houses for the residents of El Sauce. Pepe was enthusiastic about the recycling project and was interested in some building materials that could be made with plastic. 4 Walls would be willing to use our products as long as they were of good quality and were useful to the people.
Ideas for Product Development: Over the course of the trip we asked residents and business owners of El Sauce what would be useful to them and what is missing from the market. Here are ideas we got for potential products: Art Building Materials Household Items Windows Doors Storage Containers Culattas Tables/Chairs Flooring Materials Covers for Electronics Gutters Garbage Cans Room Dividers Statues of the Trees of Life Plastic Roofing Other Items Awnings/Shades Polyester for filling cushions Covers for MotoTaxis
User Feedback Overall positive reaction to project! Strong campaign and initiative to clean up the environment and sort waste Blocks designed by Afifi fit in well to the culture: Similar blocks throughout the city Building Materials was the most popular category of product suggestions Shredder looks like a lot of machinery that exists in El Sauce We have partners to develop some of the parts of the machine Shredder will add value to plastic bottles and condense waste until future parts of the business are developed
Gravita Recycling and Potential Partnerships Company in Managua Buys plastic Bottles and shreds them and cleans them Has a sorting process (by hand) Cleaned chips sent to India to make clothes If we are able to implement a successful shredding business, people will get more for shredded chips as long as we ensure quality metrics!
Next Steps after the Trip In order to make this project a success in the future here are the next steps needed to make this a success : Need further testing of PET melting and molding capabilities Further Development of the block concept as a building material (Different sizes, shapes, construction methods, strength, etc.) Development of a PRP for a compacter/ Melting machine Development of the basic business model financially and logistically Process development for collecting, storing, selling (as of now), and product production (future) Quality assurance/Training for shredding process. A compilation of notes for all things learned on this trip
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