By Hillary Ojeda
Peru This Week
Innovative ways to end plastic-use are rapidly finding their ways in all corners of the globe.
Prison inmates from Lurigancho prison are making sustainable and ecological woven baskets to promote environmentally friendly practices.
The 25 participating inmates weave organic cane fiber in various colors and distribute them to help improve the environment and rid it of plastics.
The head of the workshop at the National Penitentiary Institute of Peru (INPE), Edwin Velasquez, told La Republica that the baskets are in high demand outside of the prison. A local school has ordered 150 of the ecological and food-friendly baskets to serve as lunch receptacles for its students.
Prison inmate and participant in the workshop, Jorge Yntusca Villa, told La Republica, “we make products with the reed baskets for S/. 16. We believe that these can replace the use of plastic bags that are disproportionately distributed by commercial traders, generating pollution on beaches and streets.”
With these natural and sustainable baskets, the prisoners hope that less plastic bags will be distributed and cause less pollution and contamination in the environment.
The workshop is one of the 18 programs that provide a rehabilitation activity for the inmates at Lurigancho. It is administered by the INPE with 11 staff members.
PHOTO: Andina/Difusión
