The Costa Rican Network for Accessible Tourism, Monge Shops (Tiendas Monge) and Donatapa Project, announced the continuation of the plastic cap collection campaign for the second consecutive year.
Donatapa is a non-profit association that works promoting information, verification and training of accessible tourism in Costa Rica. As a personal mission, they began to work on the issue of accessible tourism, not only from their agency, but also by founding the Costa Rican Network of Accessible Tourism, along with other people who had a very similar vision to theirs, to create a greater positive impact on the national tourism industry and the disabled population.
Thanks to this wonderful project, Costa Rica now has 8 accessible beaches: Playa Hermosa, Playa Sámara, Playa Caldera, Playa Jacó, Manuel Antonio National Park, Playa Dominical, Playa Cieneguita and Playa Cahuita.
The requirements for an accessible beach include an accessible urban environment, with sidewalks and ramps; reserved parking for people with disabilities; retractable walkways to facilitate mobility in the sand; amphibious chairs to facilitate sea access; accessible showers for sand removal and accessible sanitary services, as well as attention services.
All types of plastic caps and plastic #2, #4 and #5 are collected and transformed through an industrial process into 100% recycled plastic wood. This wood is used to manufacture innovative products such as retractable walkways and amphibious chairs that support tourism for people with disabilities.
The campaign is held nationwide and has no expiration date.
Moreover, to generate accessible beaches, public-private alliances must be created. Involving the local government (municipality) and other organizations working in the area, including people with disabilities, is extremely important to achieve the objectives.
“Thanks to this initiative, which is framed within our Monge’s Good Green Actions program, we want to provide accessibility to thousands of people to different beaches of the country through the collection of the caps in all the Monge Stores in the country, which will then be transformed into walkways made of plastic wood,” said Carlos Fernandez, Monge Brand Manager.
By simply dropping off plastic caps at one of the 180 Monge stores in the country, anyone is able to make Costa Rica a more accessible and inclusive place, while recycling plastic and preventing from contaminating the environment.
