Cartagena’s “forgotten island” and the rise of the recycling revolution

Tourists in Cartagena’s Walled City may see the seven-square-mile island of Tierra Bomba just off the coast. There are around 9,000 residents on this island, and its beaches and cliffs are lined with colorful churches, palm trees, and kapok trees. It once served as the city’s primary defense against invasion from seafaring raiders and land-based troops. Visitors came from around the world to enjoy the island’s beaches, shops, and historical landmarks, such as the 17th-century castle and the 18th-century fort constructed by Spanish colonists using large chunks of coral.

Portia Hart, an independent hotelier, explored Tierra Bomba when looking for a location to open a beach club in 2015. From the city, it was the quickest route. The area was stunning, and new enterprises could have a big impact thanks to the lack of competition in the labor market and the lack of established industries.

Only a few smaller lodging establishments, tiny beach clubs resembling hostels, and limited amenities existed on the island. While the number of foreign visitors to the mainland increased by 500% and the tourism industries of other islands, such as the adjacent Rosario Archipelago, were thriving, Tierra Bomba’s once-famous tourist destinations declined over the previous 15 years. It is referred to in Colombia as the “forgotten island.”

AFAR recalls Hart’s initial trip, during which she questioned why nobody else was on the island. She would discover that the solution is complex and based on Indigenous rights and the history of the once enslaved African and Caribbean people who came to Tierra Bomba and established it there. There is no land ownership here, unlike on any other of Cartagena’s islands. An address may be lawfully occupied by people or businesses, but not owned.

Decades of drama and legal problems have resulted from this. Investors have also been greatly discouraged by it. Developers who were formerly hopeful about the island’s possibilities for commerce moved their funds elsewhere. At the same time, land issues dragged on, and the state followed suit; there still needs to be modern infrastructure, like paved roads, sewage systems, and running water. Water is 240 times more expensive to drink on a barge than it is on land. The only way to get to the closest clinic or hospital is by boat.

Tierra Bomba’s infrastructural issues seemed reasonable to Hart, a 39-year-old British Trinidadian who recently relocated from France to Cartagena. They meant less rivalry and a welcoming community hungry for business opportunities. In July 2016, she opened Blue Apple Beach, a breezy seaside retreat with five rooms and six cabanas just a short motorbike ride from Bocachica, the island’s largest municipality.

She soon discovered that the lack of running water, the unstable electricity, or the worn-out dock that vanishes beneath the waves on windy days weren’t the biggest issues. There was no trash collection on the island. The approach involves dumping garbage in wooded areas that are above ground. Most of it eventually found its way to the coast.

“I think I underestimated the logistical challenges, like most young people going into their first business,” Hart told AFAR. Finding a fix, though, was a hilarious series of errors. When she learned that hotel waste was being dumped on the island, she started collecting it into boats and returning it to the mainland, which she described as “extremely expensive and complicated.”

Then, Blue Apple Beach made every effort to reduce trash. They hired Caitlin Oliver, a waste management specialist, and had her visit the recycling facility on the mainland where they had been transporting their recyclables.

Particularly alarming was what the team learned regarding glass. Staff members informed Oliver that they kept storing the glass until the room was full and would eventually transfer it to a landfill because there was no demand for it.

“That was when we discovered that in Cartagena, no one recycles glass,” Hart noted.

Glass can be expensive to process even if it is infinitely recyclable. The U.S. government has not deciphered it yet. Neither had Colombia. A recent coastal cleanup organization reported that a group of volunteers on Tierra Bomba recovered more than 100 pounds of glass from the beach and adjacent villages in a single day, despite covering only 3 miles of the island’s roughly 27-mile coastline.

After a long year of trial and error, the Blue Apple crew learned how to manage every other type of garbage that didn’t harm the environment. However, dealing with glass was something that had to be done independently. They bought the first glass pulverizer for the coast of Colombia and began recycling glass bottles into goods that locals could sell for money.

According to Hart, it took only a short time for other clubs, including her competition, to approach her for assistance in recycling their glass. By the spring of 2018, she had a solution from the nonprofit organization the Green Apple Foundation, which recycles and upcycles glass.

Green Apple has quickly expanded; currently, 27 hotels and eateries take part, sending six to eight tons of used glass each month. Together, they are keeping tons of glass out of Cartagena’s landfills and dumping grounds.

About 85% of the bottles collected by Valiente’s team are crushed into fine sand, which the foundation then sells for use in concrete to create structures. Six female workers in the workshop turn the remaining 15%, or the bottles too thick for the machine, into home decor items like rocks, glasses, tumblers, and light fixtures.

The artists have dealt with more than 150 companies and people to sell more than 2,700 products in just the past year. (They divided the earnings with the foundation 70/30.) Popular Cartagena cocktails and eating establishments like Caffe Lunático, Celele, Carmen, and El Baron serve drinks in repurposed Tierra Bomba glasses.

The island’s hospitality industry is flourishing, despite how abandoned the residents felt for so long. Recent years have seen an increase in new clubs opening due to post-pandemic tourism.

Hart and Valiente know they are creating a precedent for the island’s tourism industry. Green Apple has already advised three additional Tierra Bomba resorts to design their glass recycling plants. Valiente is pleased that other places have taken the initiative to implement comparable efforts.

Evie Blanco is a journalist with nearly a decade of experience born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Queens, New York. She is extremely well-versed in hip-hop music and culture and is always aware of its developments. Whether it’s the latest in pop culture, a fascinating foreign destination, a truly amazing new restaurant, or breaking news, she loves to write about it all. Evie can be reached at evieblanco@detourxp.com.

This story was originally published May 31, 2023 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Cartagena’s “forgotten island” and the rise of the recycling revolution."