This idea finds the solution within the problem. If the trash comes from the world, let it be the world the one to take it back, and furthermore, to pay for taking it back. Mahahual is one of the Mexican beaches most visited by foreigners each week, receiving approximately 15,000 tourists. The handicrafts of the Mahahual region (Mayan cultural zone) are one of the most wanted, admired and, most importantly, bought by foreign tourists. Then, how to decrease the environmental and economic impact of this garbage problem? Local artisans created handicrafts with the trash that comes from all over the world, and sold them to tourists that also come from around the world. This way, we accomplish an economic income, the reduction of the environmental impact, and the creation of global consciousness about this local issue.

• Implementation: directly in Mahahual. The campaign called to recollect the garbage for its pulverization. Local artisans were contacted in the creation of the handicrafts, using the garbage disintegration.

Finally, posters were used with a call to action to buy handicrafts made out of garbage, that probably belonged to them.

• Media channels and integration: We made the initiative public through the Mexican Fund for Nature Conservancy’s site, with a hashtag: #thisisyours. This allowed us to enlarge the impact of the idea.

• Timeline: April 2015.

• Scale: Implemented in a small scale through different activations, because of the fact that this action was about public welfare and so it counted with a considerably small budget. Nevertheless, the impact of this idea is making many other public actors want to become part of it; they want to spread the voice and help with the cause of environmental cleaning and economic support.

• Action/business results

Different private institutions approached the Mexican Fund of Nature Conservancy offering their help. We now have a whole plan to collect garbage from 8 beaches throughout the Mayan Riviera, and an economic plan to support 3 craftsmen communities throughout the region.

• Outcomes/awareness

The results that the media buzz generated were really positive. Local hotels and many people became conscious about the problematic; they helped organize the garbage collection, incentive the neighborhood not to throw away trash, aside from different associations that now want to be part of this cause. And different groups for permanent garbage collection were created to further this process of handicraft production, so it can become a new income for the local families.

Different institutions took this idea as an example of a way of giving a problematic a different angle; a creative and intelligent one that was able to generate consciousness among the people.