The City of Laredo, in collaboration with Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages and Osprey Initiative, has embarked on a groundbreaking environmental initiative to mitigate litter and enhance the natural beauty of Zacate Creek, a 10-mile linear park that meanders through the city and feeds into the Rio Grande.
“We’re always honored to come work in Laredo’s water,” said Don Bates, owner of Osprey Initiative. “We’re seeing the focus on water rejuvenate across the country, and that’s when we draw the line in the sand to get those greenways back. There’s so much history along Zacate Creek, which makes it easy to bring back if you work on it. This is our connection to nature, in our backyard, and people shouldn’t have to go on vacation to see clean water.”
A litter-catching device was installed to sit on top of the waterway, preventing floatable litter from continuing to go downstream into the Rio Grande and eventually the ocean. According to Abraham Tueme, director of sustainability at Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages, the company will cover the cost of installation and maintenance for at least a year as part of the Zacate Creek Litter Mitigation Project. Afterward, they will hand any information over to the city to decide the next steps.
“This type of intervention not only stops litter from flowing into those waterways and helps us get a stronger understanding and recognition of the issues that come up with litter when people don’t consider where they dispose of their items, but it’s also a way for us to collect recyclable bottles and cans,” Tueme said. “They are perfectly recyclable materials that we can bring back into our supply chain to ensure that bottles and cans are not single-use.”
Tueme said the project, in which Laredo is the fifth city in Texas to participate, is a binational effort, given that it’s a relatively new process. He added that a similar litter-catching device installation will occur in Nuevo Laredo in the upcoming weeks and that its benefits include not only cleaning and recycling but also identifying sources of littering and addressing the issue.
“I’m excited that the company provides the resources to make this happen,” Tueme said. “The solutions are out there, but not all companies are willing to invest. It’s amazing to know Coca-Cola does this.”
Councilmembers Melissa Cigarroa and Alyssa Cigarroa, who represent District III and District VIII, respectively, praised the collaboration between the city, Coca-Cola and Osprey to bring the project to fruition.
“I’m grateful for this partnership and the investment in our city to really show citizens how beautiful this area can be,” Melissa Cigarroa said. “We need to do it because we need to take care of the Rio Grande, our only source of water, but it’s also a way to invest in the linear park.”
Melissa Cigarroa said an investment of $7.6 million from city, county and federal funds will be made to transform and refurbish Zacate Creek Park, with this project being the beginning.
“The vision is to continue up all these miles and really create a beautiful piece of our parkland that our citizens can get out and enjoy, improving the quality of life for all the neighborhoods that touch this creek system,” she said.
“You get to see the natural beauty that we have in our city the closer you get to the Rio Grande,” Alyssa Cigarroa said. “The most important thing is to maintain it and keep it clean. This is an incredible initiative.”
Bates and Tueme said both organizations, along with the city, will be monitoring the device, as it relies on rain to capture litter floating downstream.
“We’re not just going to install this and leave,” Bates said. “We’re going to tweak it and learn from the professionals who work in the city on how we can make it better and build solutions.”
“My long-term goal is that there comes a day when we don’t need this, that rain comes in and maybe there’s one or two pieces of litter trapped,” Tueme said. “That would mean people aren’t throwing out stuff. The short-term goal is that we want to see that this is capturing material because it creates the benefit of improving the health of the creek downstream.”
This story originally appeared on LMT Online by Jose De La Rosa. You can view the original story online here.
