On April 25 and 26, the director of Plastic Oceans Mexico attended the 4th annual art and sustainability festival, Art With Me, where she had the opportunity to talk with officials, businessmen, locals and activists to try and save Tulum from non-plastic pollution and other type of waste.
Tulum is one of the most beautiful places in Mexico, with a lot of cultural and natural wealth. It was the temple of the Mayans for hundreds of years, a protected natural area and a world heritage site by UNESCO. However, this jewel of Maya has been growing disproportionately during the last 10 years with a number of visitors that breaks records year after year.
Unfortunately, this paradise does not have enough infrastructure to cover the basic needs of its visitors, so this paradise is in a serious bind given the impossibility of maintaining practices that promote the sustainability of the place. Tulum has a serious problem with garbage since everything that enters has no outlet but a dump that is 2 km from the hotel zone and 1 km from the town.
For this reason, Art With Me brings together key stakeholders in sustainable development to talk about the problem and propose solutions that help curb this problem. This talk and work table was held within the “Care With Me” program which is led by Arnold Ricalde, leader of the Sustainable Solutions Network Tulum and the Alliance Mexico without Plastic. These talks and workgroups not only spoke to the problem of plastic but also on the transition to a circular economy, sustainable architecture, composting, permaculture and regulatory frameworks among other topics.
Because of this we will work on a comprehensive strategy to heal Tulum so that it can be the same sanctuary that our Mayan ancestors left us. Art With Me has been operating for 4 years and we hope that everything we share will inspire others to action. To see more photos visit our page on Facebook.
Art With Me:
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