Comberplast is a recycling and manufacturing company of plastic products in Chile, with more than 40 years of experience and adopting the Circular Economy approach. The company decided to create the Atando Cabos project to help clean up the shores and marine ecosystem of Chiloé Island, reducing the impact on the environment generated by plastic waste from aquaculture and fisheries. A study carried out by the company had shown that there were nearly 4,000 tons of disused marine capes and Comberplast developed a plan to recover and recycle this plastic waste, generating circular economy. The project collects all plastic waste that ends between beaches, islands and fjords, to transform it back into raw materials and create long-lasting recyclable products such as plastic pallets, plastic boxes, garbage bins, useful for the same fishing industries and communities.
Atando Cabos: The project that seeks to clean the beaches of Patagonia, Chile
By: @Carlos Rangel Yoors Blogger
It all started with Michel Compagnon's family trip to Chilean Patagonia, in which they went in search of nature and unspoiled landscapes. Although they found what they were looking for, they also appreciated an unpleasant surprise: a lot of pollution on the beaches and in the fjords of the south of the country. So Michel Compagnon proposed to Comberplast — of which he is a commercial manager — the idea of cleaning up Patagonia. The company quickly joined the initiative and through trial and error methodologies managed to generate a recycling system for plastic ropes. Then came the union with Recollect, a renowned waste management company, and this is how the project “Atando Cabos” was born. This initiative has set the goal of restoring Patagonia's coasts and ecosystem through the collection and recycling of plastics. Since its inception, it has already recovered more than 2,000 tons of plastic from the various activities carried out in coastal areas of Chilean Patagonia.
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Francisco Cruz, general manager of Atando Cavos (left) and Michel Compagnon, Comberplast commercial manager and founder of Atando Cavos.
Atando Cabos is a project that generates a significant economic, social and environmental impact. Comberplast set the 2018 target of reusing 800 tons of capes at its plant and at the end of the year managed to recycle more than 1,000 tons. In 2019, the company's challenge is to be able to rescue another 2,000 tons of waste from the southern coast. The project articulates all actors in the production chain in order to collectively give discarded waste a second life. The project has made it possible to create jobs in the recovery zones, train artisanal fishermen and work collaboratively with companies and trade union organizations.
A main ally of Comberplast is the company Recollect, a pioneer in waste management for the fishing industry in southern Chile. This company removes the various waste from the aquaculture and fishing industries that are left abandoned on beaches, and is also responsible for recovering other waste that companies deliver to it, such as ropes, nets, buoys, among others, which are deposited in different Recollect collection centres in the territory. For the fishing industries, the project represents an interesting alternative for disposal of waste and artisanal fishermen are also involved in the collection of abandoned nets and capes on beaches. Recollect manages waste and sends it to the Comberplast plant in Santiago. At the plant the material is crushed and washed (extracting organic debris, salts and sand), to be filtered and transformed into pellets. Finally, with this new material, the company succeeds in creating high quality and performance products.
Atando Cabos was recognized in 2018 as one of the largest innovation awards in the country, receiving the award in the category of “Social Innovation” at the “PwC Chile Innovation”. In 2019 they were also part of one of the most important events in their industry: the “K Fair”, the most important in the world in terms of plastic and rubber. He also received the Latin America Green Award, considered the “Oscar for the Environment
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