Kimberly-Clark Guatemala Shares its Expertise in
Recycling to Broaden Community Impact
The backbone of Kimberly-Clark Guatemala's sustainability
initiative has long been a local recycling program, "Aliados de la
Tierra" (Earth's Allies). What our team in Guatemala is
learning from this initiative is that, even after 25 years of doing
something, you can still make it new.
Expertise previously used to make Kimberly-Clark a responsible
corporate citizen in Guatemala is now being requested by and shared
with a variety of organizations in the area that wish to decrease
the size of the footprint they leave on the country as well.
Taking notice of the personal interest Guatemala City's mayor,
Álvaro Arzú, had in expanding and improving recycling programs, K-C
employees approached him in 2011 to share the company's recycling
program and to offer help in the city's recycling efforts.
The result of their encounter: K-C taught more than 900
municipal employees about recycling techniques and provided city
offices with recycling containers to improve their capacity to
store recyclable materials.
The mayor's wife, Patricia, was so impressed with
Kimberly-Clark's involvement that she contacted the company and
requested the lessons be adapted and shared with children from
schools and day care centers surrounding the city's landfill.
More than 1,200 children were reached in three months, with a new
simple, fun and educational program on recycling that will be
expanded to include lessons on healthcare and personal hygiene
habits. As an added incentive, schools were also awarded K-C
products based on the material that was captured through their
recycling efforts.
Most recently, K-C offered to share recycling lessons with two
additional local nonprofit organizations: Fundaniñas,
which aids abused girls, and Museo de los Ninos (The Children's
Museum), through which we will reach an additional 160,000
children.
"The future of our program depends on the establishment of a
strong tie between K-C's recycling program and similar programs of
other important companies in Guatemala and neighboring countries,"
says Arturo Solis, Supply Chain Manager for Guatemala. "As we
increase our sustainability program, we also help our community
solve its waste problems as well as support local corporate social
responsibility programs."
