Fundación Green Apple: Turning Waste Into Opportunity
In Cartagena, Colombia, Fundación Green Apple is turning waste into opportunity. Founded in 2018, this inspiring social enterprise has empowered local communities by transforming glass and food waste into valuable resources — from handmade glassware to sustainable construction materials and compost. Through recycling initiatives, training programmes, and community-led solutions, Fundación Green Apple is not only reducing waste but also creating employment opportunities and fostering a circular economy in Colombia’s most touristic city.
The Conscious Travel Foundation are excited to be supporting the organisation via our Community Impact Fund grant over the next 3 years. We spoke to the team behind Fundación Green Apple to learn more about their journey, their impact, and how tourism businesses and travellers alike can support their mission:
Portia, what led you to establish Fundación Green Apple in 2018? Can you tell us more about your vision to turn waste into a positive force for the local community?
The Foundation came out of a need that we had at Blue Apple Beach. In 2018, there was no municipal waste collection on the island, nor a city recycler for glass or food waste, and it was expensive to send all our waste to the city. So the idea was three-fold - save money on waste management, create at least one job on the island, and ensure waste was converted into something useful, rather than going to landfill (formal or informal!)
That initial idea still holds true, but it’s grown to have more and more impact. Over six years, the foundation has empowered disadvantaged individuals to become experts in sustainable hospitality, artisanal craftsmanship and recycling engineering, with a financially stable recycling model that processes over 10 tons monthly across four centres. Green Apple also leads a women-run business producing glassware sold nationwide, offers eco-friendly alternatives to quarried sand, and has trained thousands of hospitality staff in zero waste practices.
How does Fundación Green Apple’s work intersect with Cartagena’s tourism industry?
In a nutshell, tourism creates waste but also needs environments to be clean and local people to be thriving. We take waste that might otherwise contaminate, create jobs through its transformation and let tourists know that they’re part of the solution.
Waste isn’t sexy. But it’s an overlooked opportunity. Turning discarded materials into valuable resources boosts economies without increasing consumption or emissions. By training locals in overlooked but impactful practices, we create field experts who gain respect and opportunities as industry leaders. Our model transforms environmental harm and social inequality into opportunities.
Your team has achieved an impressive 82% waste recycling rate at some hotels. What strategies have helped you achieve such impressive results?
We’ve learnt a lot along the way, helping hotels to manage waste. Many of the places working with us reduce their total waste stream by up to 50% a year through reduction and reuse strategies, saving them money because they throw less away. Then to achieve such a high recycling rate, we help them to change to products that can be recycled rather than landfilled and train them to separate those streams well.
We handle collection, transforming glass and food waste into low impact products, and giving other materials to other local initiatives that do the same. We measure everything and do all the hard work checking recycling partner practices and chasing certificates. And we’re always available to answer questions and help teams to solve problems together.
But that doesn’t mean that Green Apple does it all. The hotels with the highest recycling rates follow our recommendations making sure individuals in management and across the hotel are on board to work with us and make changes. They become the experts and champions of the project within the hotel. And we celebrate their achievements with them, showing them the impact their ideas have, which often motivates them to go the extra mile.
Can you explain how your glass recycling initiatives — from producing glass sand to handmade glassware — are helping to build a circular economy in Cartagena?
We’re still the only organisation transforming glass in Cartagena, because glass is heavy, dangerous and the resulting product - sand - has a low resale value. But virgin sand is the second most exploited resource after water, so sustainable alternatives like glass sand are crucial.
What we’re doing is local in every sense - collection, transformation and use - be that at island scale or city-scale, we’re putting the sand to use in so many ways, be it building a house or road, cleaning water and boats, and even potentially in mangrove, coral and coastal restoration.
We’re responding to local demand, developing low impact products - sand, compost, glasses, lamps; and layering in services for businesses and experiences for tourists to create equitable jobs and a circular local economy. What I love about it are the ideas and collaboration that comes out of that process across multiple levels of society.
We love that the glassware business is run by women — how has this initiative created new opportunities for local artisans?
One of the great things about the glassware business (and one of the reasons it’s working so well) is that it was created by six of those who did the original glass course back in 2019. They became friends during the course, spotted an opportunity, and asked if they could work together once a week at Blue Apple, with some business support from Green Apple. We said, “Sure!” and it’s grown and grown from there.
They decide when to work together, working around their other responsibilities, so it’s really flexible. If there’s a big order to do, they go out of their way to get it done, working early, working late. They’re a team that motivates each other. Yohiceth, who is one of the original six, showed such dedication that she’s now employed by Green Apple to do project coordination and sales for the artisans. Last year, she doubled glassware sales.
Green Apple helps to open doors to teachers, new clients, new techniques and finding funding if specific tools are needed. This year, a great teacher from Medellín and a local jeweler will be giving classes, and thanks to TCTF and Fondo Mujer, we’ll be buying some new tools so they can make some of the products that hotels would love to have. And the artisans are becoming teachers too - running classes for tourists and training up potential artisans in other communities.
Green Apple Artisans Greisis, Merleth, Yohiceth and Irina.
The Community Impact Fund will be supporting the creation of your sustainable brick factory, can you explain how the project meets environmental goals and local construction needs?
The project is in its infancy right now, but it’s come about as a response to what’s happening on the island of Tierra Bomba right now. Tierra Bomba was “the forgotten island”, but it’s becoming popular and with that comes new businesses and new construction. Concrete blocks are very popular, but they don’t look great, they’re costly to transport to the island, and in the long-term, they become construction waste.
So what if the island started building using materials that are readily available, like earth and glass sand? This reduces transport costs and can create jobs for more local people on the island. We met an amazing engineer who is sharing his decades of experience and his recipe to make carbon-neutral bricks that don’t need to be fired, but are perfect for both road building and construction. And in the long-term, they won’t contaminate the land, because they are made from natural, non-harmful materials.
The zero-waste island project is an exciting ambition — what’s your vision for this initiative, and how can local businesses get involved?
It is exciting and ambitious and what’s great is that it’s a shared vision that’s been formed by local businesses and local people living on the island of Isla Grande in the Islas de Rosarios in partnership with Green Apple.
We’ve been shaping the idea together, and talking about how to make it self-sustaining, turning informal collection and recycling work into formal, skilled opportunities - essentially replicating the Green Apple model but for a whole island with some great new activities too. There will be composting, animal husbandry, glass recycling, plastic reduction, a recycling shop, an artisan workshop and plenty of ways that everyone can get involved to create what everyone wants - a clean island with new jobs and responsible tourism that benefits the entire community.
For travellers visiting Cartagena, what simple actions can they take to support Fundación Green Apple’s work?
The easiest thing to do is enjoy visiting the hotels, bars and restaurants in the city and the islands, who work with us. You can find them on our Friends page. Buy a Green Apple cocktail at El Barón or Townhouse. Come visit Blue Apple and take a class with the artisans. If you’re moved to support our work, you can see more about our projects here, and of course, give us a like on Instagram.
As Green Apple continues to expand, what’s your biggest hope for the project’s long-term impact?
Green Apple´s model empowers people from local communities to work hand in hand with tourism operators to solve the problems they face, regardless of educational background. Our team members evolve into teachers, technicians, artisans, and entrepreneurs, creating a ripple effect that impacts thousands.
Rather than becoming a huge organisation, we believe in replication and diversity. Small, nimble operations are autonomous, easier for communities to adapt to their specific needs and are less bureaucratic. The two replicas that have been started on neighbouring islands are independent to us, but we remain actively involved via consultancy and training, and each operation is unique.
Long-term, we’d love to see Green Apple sprouting up wherever there is unemployment, poor waste infrastructure and tourism challenges, because clean communities foster dignity, environmental respect, and self-pride while pristine environments attract tourism and its economic benefits. It’s a win-win.
The Green Apple Team
What advice would you give to other organisations looking to turn environmental challenges into economic opportunities?
Start small. Be curious and hopeful. Work collaboratively. Learn constantly. Celebrate every win. Measure your social, environmental and financial impact from the get go, and keep an eye on cash flow! Not everything will work and there will be setbacks. But if your idea responds to real needs, it has the potential to benefit many, foster community and protect or regenerate the environment we rely on.
