URUGUAYAN CENTER FOR STUDY, ANALYSIS AND DOCUMENTATION (CEADU)

Organizational Vision
Citizen Base Strategy
How It's Working
Lessons Learned

Organizational Vision

CEADU teaches the principles of recycling to Uruguayan youth and the surrounding community while providing an inexpensive and renewable source of paper goods for low-income schools. Their initiative, Repapel, is an innovative solution to the increasing strain on the urban environment with regards to paper consumption, and the question of how to effectively promote environmental education.

The strategy is simple: children collect newspapers and paper from their homes, neighbors and neighborhood stores and take them to their respective schools. Participating partner companies also contribute their paper waste either directly to schools or to a common fund. All of the paper waste is subsequently consolidated, sorted, baled and transported to local paper-manufacturing factories for recycling. Repapel then distributes factory-made recycled-paper products such as folders, toilet paper, notebooks, and packaging paper to the schools, who on average receive a monthly volume equivalent to 40 tons of paper. Repapel also organizes hands-on paper-recycling activities in the schools for the children, as well as training workshops for teachers to enable them to conduct other recycling activities. The project reduces school costs, provides needed school materials to low-income students, builds demand for recycled products, and teaches good environmental practices to the next generation of Uruguayans. To date, 96 schools with a total student population of 25,000 participate in the program, and $120,000 worth of supplies has been distributed.

Citizen Base Strategy

Emphasize the visibility of partner organizations

Part of CEADU’s success comes from its partnerships with companies and other private organizations with a substantial amount of paper waste. The key has been to make it as easy as possible for companies to participate, and raise visibility at the same time.

Repapel set up a collection system to receive paper waste from companies, and uses containers which both facilitate the correct classification of paper and advertise each company’s participation as a partner of the organization. Thus companies gain visibility within the community as a supporter of the project, and Repapel collects more paper waste to transform into valuable school supplies. In addition, in order to increase the project’s own visibility, Repapel forms strategic partnerships with companies that specialize in publicity, like shopping centers. Repapel’s partners include the Central Bank of Uruguay, the Uruguayan oil company (ANCAP), Santander Bank, IBM Uruguay, and the United States Embassy in Uruguay.

Identify and use a community resource with market value

The essence of Repapel is taking advantage of a waste material to develop a useful activity for the environment and for a population at risk. The organization has mastered the art of utilizing the market value of their ‘product’ to ensure their own sustainability.

Repapel employs no traditional fundraising methods such as international grant-seeking or governmental support. It receives all of its necessary resources through in-kind donations, including help with marketing, fuel for transportation, and recycled paper. The value of the paper received through donations is enough to cover the basic organizational costs as well as the costs of the recycled materials which are delivered to schools. As Repapel states, “Current market conditions permit, not without difficulties, the maintenance of the project solely on the value of paper.”

How It’s Working

Repapel was founded in 2002 and became completely self-sustaining in 2005

Repapel receives 100% of its materials from in-kind donations

To date, 950 tons of paper have been collected by schools, companies and other organizations that support Repapel

The project is being replicated in some schools in the Uruguayan cities of Trinidad, Melo, Colonia, Salto and Paysandú

Lessons Learned

Involve the community before launching. Before beginning the project, Repapel organized a discussion workshop with 50 teachers from 15 schools in Montevideo to outline the goals and strategies of Repapel.

Create an exact inventory of needs. Repapel maintains that it is more difficult, at least it demands a greater effort, for an organization to request goods and services, but goods and services are easier to obtain than money. The key is to know exactly which goods and services are needed to carry out the idea or project. Once an accurate inventory is created, it is both easier to request and obtain the necessary materials.

Centralize your operations. Rather than a costly door-to-door collection system, Repapel relies on students to collect paper waste from their homes and those of neighbors and bring them to the schools, where they are sorted and transported.