PHOTO: Turning waste into virtual currency

Costa Rica discards 564 tons of plastic per day of which only 14 are recycled, according to the Ministry of Health’s Office of Environmental Health in charge of waste management in the country.

Since April 2018, a program seeks to stimulate recycling by giving value to waste through the exchange of it for a virtual currency that allows users to make purchases at stores linked with the initiative.

(Ezequiel Becerra / AFP)