Converting the old into new is one of the slogans carried by those who work in the Raw Materials Recovery Company (ERMP in Spanish) while they think that nothing is rubbish, and if there is, it is very little.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- This is demonstrated by the studies they carry out at the landfills, which show that 40 percent of the waste found there is recyclable raw material generated by the population.

Their recovery actions to eliminate the large percentage of plastics and glass at these sites reach out to state entities and new economic actors, who are offered cash payment services at the ERMP Buying Houses.

"Anyone interested in selling some raw materials goes to the network of Buying Houses and gets paid in cash. We also do it through Community Services, the crew members of their carts collect the recyclable material for us and take it to our establishments to sell it," explained Yulianni Ramírez Hernández, municipal director of the entity.

"We also have a working relationship with the different organizations, who link us with the drivers of the different vehicles that take products to the organizations; warehouses where they collect some of the materials that we miss. We also have landfill operators who recover a considerable amount.

The biggest challenge for those who work in the ERMP lies in finding people who want to participate in the collection of recyclable waste to be taken to their purchasing network because although it is not the task of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution or the Federation of Cuban Women, years ago there were collection agreements in the neighborhoods, where everyone contributed what they had at home.

In this regard, Jorge Rivera Barbán, manager of the company, told our press that "through the unions, these collections can also be made, mobilizing staff within the workplaces and recovering paper from the waste bins, boxes and other raw materials that they have. It is in our role as recycling managers to go wherever we are called to collect all the material that can be reused.

Increasing the culture of recycling is a task that we thought was overdue in our society, there are still ways to go in this framework, and it is in everyone's hands to reduce the alarming numbers in landfills in terms of reusable material. We still have much more to do from within, from the conscience and the good deeds of each Cuban.