mA&A

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mA&A

Uruguay
Project Stage:
Scaling
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
Website:
http://www.mayauruguay.com
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Ana Luisa is developing an integral approach to dealing with toxic waste management in Uruguay. She is creating new technologies to recycle and dispose of hazardous materials in responsible ways, while promoting transparency, spreading environmental and public health awareness, and creating decent jobs for waste management workers. Ana Luisa has for example designed Uruguay's first toxic waste tracking technology as well as the first machines dedicated to the safe destruction of fluorescent lamps and cathode ray tubes, which contain high amounts of mercury. Ana Luisa is now planning the next phase to disseminate her methodology to the Southern cone region and beyond.

About Project

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

Through the creation of MA&A, in 2001, Ana Luisa developed the first efficient system in Uruguay dedicated to managing toxic waste produced by the pharmaceutical, chemical and agricultural industries. She is building leading best practices for the first time in the sector, creating decent jobs and developing innovative technologies to recycle and dispose of hazardous products that would otherwise end up in Uruguay's rivers and soils. Ana Luisa is contributing to a fundamental shift in Uruguay, by demonstrating that the country is capable of developing technologies and methodologies adapted to its small market scale. MA&A is building transparency and accountability into each activity it undertakes, thus breaking away from the popular perception that waste management is a 'dirty' business. Ana Luisa is putting the emphasis on the health and quality of the life of its employees and of the population at large. She is also offering capacity building opportunities to waste management businesses and citizen sector organizations (CSOs) to enable them to adopt MA&A's innovative and responsible practices and adhere more strongly to safety regulations. Recognizing that her organization alone would not change the waste industry as a whole, Ana Luisa began working on environmental awareness with government authorities, businesses, universities. Ana Luisa is working closely with informal garbage collectors as well, giving them technical and management support that helps them incorporate themselves in the formal recycling industry with decent jobs. Moreover, she created the Chamber of Waste Management Businesses (CEGRU) in 2008 in order to introduce new norms of technological innovation, transparency, safety and decent employment to this sector. Ana Luisa is working closely with government authorities to introduce and implement stronger toxic waste regulations. Through a collaboration with the Uruguayan Institute of Technical Norms, Ana Luisa also systematized and ISO-certified MA&A's safety standards. Through MA&A, CEGRU and her work with government authorities, universities and CSOs, Ana Luisa is transforming the waste management sector in Uruguay.