Cape Verde Recycling Project Joins Global Plastic Credits Market
A grassroots recycling project in Cape Verde is evolving from a local beach-cleanup initiative into a player on the international stage. Created by a biologist driven to combat marine pollution, Ekonatura Cape Verde is scaling its operations from kilograms to tons as it prepares to enter the global plastic credits market.
In this emerging market, international corporations can offset their environmental footprint by purchasing credits from organizations like Ekonatura. Each credit represents a specific amount of plastic removed from the environment or repurposed into high-value items, such as school furniture. For Ekonatura, this represents more than just a revenue stream.
“It serves as another educational tool,” says Edita Magileviciute, president of the Cape Verdean Ecotourism Association and the project’s founder. As the organization refines its monitoring processes to meet rigorous international certification standards, it is positioning itself to benefit from a global shift toward the circular economy.
From Keychains to Classrooms
The project began modestly in the village of São Francisco, just outside the capital city of Praia. Initially, volunteers collected 100 to 200 kilograms of plastic annually through door-to-door efforts, crafting small trinkets like dolphin keychains. However, surging interest from local businesses provided the momentum to scale.
Today, the workshop is equipped with industrial shredders and presses. These machines transform “plastic sand”—the result of cleaning, sorting, and shredding discarded bottles—into durable, colorful plastic sheets. One square meter of this material consumes 11.5 kilograms of fully recycled waste. This year, Ekonatura is on track to process one ton of plastic waste.
The impact is visible in the community. At the project’s shop, tourists can purchase side tables and Christmas trees made from former detergent bottles. Even the Cape Verdean government has become a client, commissioning school desks made entirely of recycled caps and containers. “It is education in practice,” Magileviciute says. “What better example for children than sitting in chairs made from 100% recycled plastic?”
A Labor of Patience
Despite the high-tech goal of international credits, the daily work remains a painstaking manual process. Employees like Cipriana Lopes spend hours scraping labels and cleaning containers before they can be processed. “Just support us; we are ready to continue,” she says, wheeling her barrow to the village’s collection point.
Changing minds is as difficult as cleaning the plastic. “It’s not easy to change rooted habits,” notes manager João Ferreira. While older generations are slower to adapt, he sees the youth as the primary drivers of this environmental revolution.
Tapping Into Global Financing
Ekonatura’s potential is currently part of a study by the Portuguese Association of Environmental Technology Companies (Apemeta). The study aims to map how Cape Verdean stakeholders can certify their work to attract public and private financing through plastic credits.
The stakes are global. With the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being dumped into the ocean every minute, the World Economic Forum has warned that plastic could outweigh fish in the sea by 2050. The World Bank has identified plastic credits as a vital mechanism to bridge the gap between private capital and on-the-ground pollution fighting.
As the project expands to other communities, Ekonatura stands as a proof of concept: that small-scale local action can be transformed into a certified sustainable economy, turning Cape Verde’s waste into a valuable international asset.
Image: Pexels – Mike van Schoonderwalt
