HAZla por tu playa

Inés Yábar is an impact driven Peruvian sustainability activist, combining her studies, volunteering and job to continue learning, sharing and acting towards a more sustainable future.

She is in charge of communications at L.O.O.P. (Life Out Of Plastic) having worked previously at makesense to help innovators make their projects take flight. With her previous experiences (in organizations like Lucidez, Climate Tracker, Live Love Recycle, Ecosia) and with her degree in Communications specialized in human relations, Inés specializes in the themes of plastic pollution, civil society activism and the communication of sustainability.

She was also recently part of the Peruvian delegation to the UN Conference of Parties in Madrid.

HAZla por tu playa is a campaign to keep our ocean, seas, lakes and rivers free from pollution. It empowers citizens to take action against plastic pollution. This movement started in Peru (reaching 22 regions) and has now extended to 11 countries. At the same time HAZla encourages citizens to do clean ups and educates through this action. HAZla also looks for the people that can develop leadership skills and empower them to be agents of change to contribute to conservation and sustainability. Our strong network of around 900 regional leaders mobilize thousands of volunteers every year. This way, people can not only take action, but also collect debris data from each location. Over the 8 editions of HAZla we have cleaned over 1000 beaches, rivers, wetlands & lakes with around 200 tons of debris collected and the success of knowing that our efforts shape leaders of change.

Plastic is one of the most long-lasting materials since it does not disappear completely and continues in our environment for ever. 

In Peru, according to the Ministry of Environment, 46% of solid waste found on beaches is plastic. Also, a study by Sara Purca (2018) revealed microplastics were found in anchovies since these tiny particles attach to plancton which is the base of the chain in the marine ecosystem.

With a population of 32 million inhabitants, Peru generates 8 million tons of trash a year (MINAM 2016). Citizens are also engaged with 1 out of 3 people volunteering in Peru. However there is much to do still to help people act to protect the marine Ecosystems. In Peru, many of the volunteering opportunities are present in the capital where 1/3 of the population lives. Although our head quarters are in Lima we have chosen to work with leaders in any region of Peru to give them the skills to lead the cleanups, data collection and citizen mobilization. In this way we can act on plastic pollution as well as provide opportunities for young people to become leaders and empower people from their communities wherever they may be. 

HAZla por tu playa is a cleanup that takes place on the first weekend of the month of march each year. Prior to the actual event that takes place in the whole of Peru (and wherever anyone else would like to lead one) we set up an open call for applications to have leaders sign up their beaches, wetlands, lakes and rivers for the cleanup. They are then trained in data collection, beach cleanup management and leadership so they have all the tools to lead the event. 

HAZla educates, inspires and shapes young leaders who can in turn educate others weather through social media, the beach cleanup, the awareness campaigns or in their daily lives. The cleanup is simple. Each location is on a map with the leader assigned to it. People can sign up and turn up to the event where gloves, bags and recording sheets are available. Through the cleanup the different elements & brands found are recorded to help build nation wide data that has already influenced decision making in Peru & the law banning single use plastic bags in Peru.

HAZla reaches all regions of Peru giving access to education, empowerment and means of action to people regardless of their age, background, location or previous volunteer experience. 1 in 3 people have volunteered in Peru, we want to give this opportunity to everyone while not only allowing citizens to follow a movement but also to shape it. 

Our volunteers come from all kinds of backgrounds and have become leaders of change. Through our trainings we shape them to be the ones who lead the cleanups in their locations. Since we work with people that choose the areas they will do the cleanups in, they understand the needs of their communities as well as the importance of preservation of the areas close to home. 

Our volunteers could be discouraged if what we offered was a yearly beach cleanup since the debris keep washing up on the shore. However, by training them to do correct data collection we have been able to publish reports showing the most found objects and brands. This had lead to action from the government to prevent these items reaching the ocean and encouraging our volunteers to act more and be agents of change through those actions. 

HAZla was born after a weekend camping and cleaning among 15 friends. Realizing the impact each person could have in their individual lives, this group of friends decided to launch a national beach-cleanup campaign to empower others to action.  Each year, this campaign infused energy in us and gave us hope that we were going in the right direction. 

As a young teenager I had the opportunity of co-leading the second edition of HAZla after being involved in the first edition as part of L.O.O.P. The experience showed me that no matter how young, our actions can bring about major changes. 

A simple dream, an individual action, a shared goal made HAZla go from 15 people to over 4 000 in any given edition. 

The idea was also to allow this action to be free for the volunteers (as we offer corporate beach cleanups for companies) by having companies sponsor it and also encouraging their workers to take part in the initiative to better understand the problem. This is how relationships with brands also allowed change in production models and allowed a seemingly small action to become a national movement pushing forward to change.

Being born in Lima, a coastal city, I grew up next to the sea. As a young school girl I decided to do a project on the journey of a plastic bottle with 2 other friends. This is how we met Irene who had recently done a trip to the jungle and had discovered the huge problem of plastic pollution in our country too. With L.O.O.P. she found an opportunity to share her love for the environment by allowing young people like me to become leaders. Having personally grown through being a volunteer, leader and now co-coordinator in the team, I know the importance of leading through example, acting for what we care for and sharing knowledge. 

This is what HAZla allows. Not only does this weekend help reduce the amount of waste on the coastlines of Peru, but it also shapes people and empowers them to be agents of change. Just as Irene & Nadia (L.O.O.P. co-founders) poured into me, it is now my opportunity to do so with others. HAZla is a place of inspiration, renovation and drive towards major change in Peru but also in the lives of those who have been involved in this movement. 

My ocean conservation journey started at 16. As a L.O.O.P. volunteer I was able to be part of a stimulating team. 

I decided to learn more on how to communicate to allow more people to be inspired and take action. I did my undergraduates in France with a scholarship allowing me to continue to volunteer as I studied. I chose to discover other realities like Japan where I spent a year in a national park sharing about the importance of preserving nature. 

I later gained knowledge on project management in my masters degree. This allowed me to have a better grasp on how to lead a project to be sustainable. 

I was also able to work in Lebanon with a recycling NGO where I discovered new ways to engage communities. 

Throughout all this, my desire to help my community grew. Now, as part of the L.O.O.P. staff, I’ve come full circle. After years of learning, acting and sharing I can understand the needs both from the volunteers and the “project manager” side. I have been able to grow to better serve my community and also better the initiatives already in place. 

Understanding the realities in other countries also helps me know how to scale the project to not only reach my country but allow others to shape leaders too. Finally, all these experiences have showed me that pouring into people allows them to continue to grow and bring the projects along with them generating impacts one alone could not do. 

In the broader perspective, my project is to allow more people to act through inspiring them and giving them the tools they need to act. This is why, last year I wanted to go to the COP in Chile to share what goes on at a leadership level as a young person. I applied to a competition allowing the top 3 people to go as reporters. My video on recycling was chosen as one of the finalists in my category among 400. 

I ended up 3rd in my category and instead as taking it as a failure I took it as an opportunity to go further, not reporting on the event but reaching the COP as a member of the peruvian delegation. 

The competition gave me the opportunity to realize my potential and the interest other people had in seeing what goes on in these events. This is how, after conversations with the ministry of environment I was able to go to COP25. This goes to show that setbacks are only so if we let them. In my case, the hiccup propulsed me further than I had planned to go. It’s the same for HAZla where difficulties become opportunities.

Co-leading a national campaign at the age of 18 demonstrates capacity from a young age to inspire and mobilize citizens for change. I believe that by leading a small group of people, they can become leaders to more and so on. 

In 2014, the second edition of HAZla allowed me not only to be in contact with decision makers who helped this project come to life but also with people from all walks of life who came together for the same cause. Although that edition had 2500 volunteers, what I am most proud of is having inspired people closest to me to take action. From my parents to my friends to people from my church & school, seeing them take action was a highlight since it demonstrated that no matter how young I looked to them, or how similar our education had been, I could still teach, share, inspire and push them to be better leading with my actions.

Conservamos por Natualeza is co-founder of HAZla