Some 30 families from the community of El Volcán, in the central Honduran valley of Comayagua, launched a project this month to recycle garbage. Their effort is part of an environmental, educational and micro-enterprise training initiative promoted by domestic and international groups.

Ángel López, who used to be an informal garbage collector, is now a microentrepreneur and is thinking on a grand scale. “We have become people with a business vision for the future. We are even learning to read and write to avoid errors in our accounting,” he told Tierramérica.

The microbusiness he leads is known as “Nueva Esperanza” (New Hope) and is part of a project promoted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) and the National Center for Employment Education, in cooperation with the local government of Comayagua.