- Title: Skateboards made from plastic bottle caps promote recycling in Rio's favelas
- Date: 25th October 2021
- Summary: DRAWINGS AND PLANS SHOWING THE DESIGN OF THE SKATEBOARD THAT IS BEING MANUFACTURED BY NA LAJE DESIGNS VARIOUS OF RAYEGANI PUTTING PLASTIC CAPS INSIDE A MACHINE THAT CRUSHES THEM CLOSE OF MACHINE FLATTENING CAPS CLOSE OF A SKATEBOARD MADE FROM PLASTIC BOTTLE CAPS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CREATOR OF "NA LAJE DESIGNS", ARIAN RAYEGANI, SAYING: "We don't want to be... we are not a
- Embargoed: 8th November 2021 14:04
- Keywords: Brazil Rio de Janeiro plastic recycling skateboarding
- Location: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
- City: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
- Country: Brazil
- Topics: South America / Central America
- Reuters ID: LVA003F0NREBR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: In Rio's Rocinha favela, a local project promotes recycling by giving food donations in exchange for bottle caps which are used to build skateboards.
Na Laje Designs is a project created by Canadian mechanical engineer Arian Rayegani, 27, who moved to Rio de Janeiro before the start of the pandemic.
"We are not a skateboard factory, it's bigger than this. We want to create a hub and a centre of innovation for recycling here in Rocinha," explained Rayegani.
Most of the plastic caps are donated by residents from Rocinha. Locals created recycling points in the favela where they collected, separated and cleaned the caps before handing them to Na Laje Designs.
"I am very happy to be working on recycling. Also, by recycling the caps I give them to people who make toys and donate them to children," said Maria Del Rosario Da Silva, one of the residents in charge of a recycling point.
Rayegani says he also helps the community by rising awareness about the importance of recycling through lecturing young people and children.
"Today we work on plastic but tomorrow we want to be able to recycle paper, metal, glass and beyond that, we want to bring the next generation, bring the kids here, to learn about it, to prevent the issue," said Rocinha.
According to Rayegani, Rocinha produces 230 tons of garbage per day.
Each Na Laje Designs skateboard uses 1.5 kilograms of bottle caps (approximately 500 caps) and takes an average of two hours to complete. First the caps are crushed, then melted, placed into a mold and "cooked" in a industrial pizza oven.
(Production: Sebastian Rocandio, Nina Lopez, Andrea Rodriguez) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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