War widows propel new recycling program

Colombia

Death and destruction have been as common in Urabá as the leafy banana plantations that blanket the region. Thousands of people have died here over the past two decades as rival guerrilla and paramilitary factions struggled for control of this strategic corner of northwest Colombia. Exhausted by violence, Urabá is now enjoying a relative calm. And hundreds of widows, having lost their husbands in the conflicts, are trying to pick up the pieces—literally as well as figuratively. Their economic hopes have been bolstered by a new cooperative business: to recycle the thousands of tons of plastic string and bags abandoned on Urabá’s plantations. Nylon string used to support the banana plants has been trodden into the soils to the point where it is strangling... [Log in to read more]

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