Citromax | Sustainable Institutions

Feb

Sustainable Institutions

In 2022 Citromax formalized all its initiatives related to caring for the environment and its intervention in local communities under the Sustainable Institutions Program.

Based on this program, we seek to generate lasting alliances with organizations that share our values, vision of sustainability and care for the environment, determined like us to promote change from within.

The objective is to extend the good practices, replicating the positive results obtained within Citromax to our area of influence in Tucumán, Argentina.

We organize the work with the participating institutions under four axes:

Agroecological garden
Waste Management System
Sustainable Donations
Labor Insertion

In 2022 we worked with 5 institutions in influence: Centro Educativo y Terapéutico de Concepción (CETCO), Escuela Primaria de Amberes, Instituto de Enseñanza Superior de Villa Quinteros, Escuela Técnica N°1 de Rio Seco y la Escuela de Comercio Ing. José Antonio Álvarez Condarco en Acheral.

From the Sustainable Institutions Program, we previously consider the needs of the community, and the opportunities to develop ideas with added value, solving basic problems and actively promoting the circular economy.

In 2022 Citromax donated more than 1,500 units of unused material to organizations participating in the program.

The promotion of ways to reuse and revalue disused materials is part of our sustainable management. Some of the materials revalued in 2022 were bins, pallets, drums and electrical materials, and compost.

Pallets and drums were the most requested materials for recycling activities. Being the drums reused as waste containers, biodigesters, compost bins and ecological ovens; and the platforms such as flowerpots, potholders, tables, chairs, armchairs and other furniture.

In addition, we removed 1,000 kilos of recyclable waste from the participating organizations: Escuela Técnica de Rio Seco, Instituto de Estudios Superiores Villa Quinteros, Escuela Comercio de Acheral y CETCO. Being the result of a whole year of joint work between the Environment and Sustainability area of Citromax SACI, the Concepción Ecological Point (PEC) and the Cooperativa 25 de abril.

In 2022, the Sustainable Institutions Program directly reached 1,300 people in our area of influence.

Building sustainable communities: CECTO experience

One of the first allied organizations was the Centro Educativo Terapéutico de Concepción, attended by children of different ages with a wide range of cognitive, emotional, and motor difficulties. After the initial visits, 3 work axes of the Sustainable Institutions Program were proposed, scalable to the entire organization: Agroecological Garden, Waste Management System and Sustainable Donations.

Thanks to them, we lead the implementation of our first inclusive agroecological garden, easily accessible for children with reduced mobility and/or motor problems, revaluing disused material from the industrial process such as plastic bins and pallets. This gave rise to new instances of learning linked to eco-design and the self-sufficiency of vegetables, among others, allowing them to acquire new skills applicable to their lives.

For the construction of the agroecological garden, they received seeds from the INTA Pro-huerta Program, for the autumn-winter and spring-summer seasons, and the initial substrate from the Citromax composting yards.

Also, the waste management system was implemented, separating plastic, cardboard-paper, and metals for recycling, reducing the fraction of RSU generated; and composting organic waste originated in the kitchen of the institution.

During 2022, the Concepción Ecological Point (PEC) made 10 removals of recyclable waste; while thanks to the constant accompaniment of Citromax, with more than 15 visits throughout the year, an internalization of the composting process was achieved, continuously enriching the substrate of their inclusive agroecological garden, and providing fresh vegetables to their kitchen.

This is how we achieved closing the circle of dry and wet recyclable waste generated at CETCO, complying with the 3 axes of work proposed at the beginning of our intervention. In turn, CETCO made the Sustainable Institutions program its own, and became an active promoter in the community, which adds significantly to our efforts to extend sustainability practices.

We carry out the closure of activities ending our direct intervention, to actively accompany them whenever they need it. This allowed the entry of a new institution into the program: Escuela Primaria N°14 de Amberes, and we began its participation by organizing a talk, training, and practice on the management of recyclable and organic waste.

This 2023 we will work towards implanting circularity in the culture of each of the participating institutions and reaching out to more organization committed to achieving sustainability!