Travelling through the pristine Andean landscape, it is impossible to miss the saddening sight of abandoned plastic bags polluting Pachamama. Instead of just complaining, we decided to to direct action and start trying to reduce the use of plastic bags.

We did this by producing our own cotton bags and giving these to local shopkeepers to hand out to their customers. The bags carry the Colectivo Colibri logo and are reusable. To date thousands of these bags have been distributed in the valley. It appears that the spirit of our work has caught on, with other organisations producing and distributing cotton bags of varying sizes and designs!

Whilst you will still unfortunately see all too many plastic bags thrown away and polluting the landscape, that all important first step has been made…