This campaign was designed to address an important environmental issue: The waste of paper during national elections. Every election in Uruguay, tons of paper are wasted in ballot papers that end up in the trash. During last internal elections, more than 500 million of them were printed for only 2.6 million voters. In order to produce that amount, requires cutting down 43.,000 adult trees.

Repapel is an organization dedicated to sustainable development in public schools that works to prevent the felling of trees and waste of resources. That’s why we came up with the idea of placing giant ballot boxes in strategic locations throughout the city. Then we invited people to vote more responsibly for the environment. People could put their ballot papers in these ballot boxes that they wouldn’t use and could see its equivalence of what could be done with all that wasted paper.

The campaign was a total success, obtaining tons of paper to be recycled, and thousands of people got involved with the cause. Even the governing party, led by Pepe Mujica and his wife, promised to reconsider the issue for the next election.

Two weeks before national elections, we placed giant ballot boxes in strategic locations of the city like shopping malls, main streets and the city council. Then we invited people to vote more responsibly for the environment putting the ballot papers that they wouldn’t use in these ballot boxes. Then they could see an example of what could be done with all that wasted paper.

The media impact obtained during that election period was unprecedented, being mentioned on almost every live TV show in Uruguay, and on most important news websites and newspapers of the region. Interaction in Facebook increased by 1.000% and sponsors inquiries tripled. The governing party, led by Pepe Mujica and his wife, promised to reconsider the issue for the next election.