On a beach in the Pacific of Costa Rica, two women clean fish skins to turn them into leather that will be used to make clothing and other items, such as earrings and necklaces.
Marta Sosa and Mauren Castro They were housewives until two years ago, but they embarked on this initiative to earn income for their families with the skins discarded by the fishermen of Costa de los Pájarosa town located 100 km west of San José.
“This skin was previously thrown into the sea and now it will no longer pollute, it will be used for processes to make leather or skin or fabric,” Castro, 41, tells AFP.
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Meet ‘Piel Marina’, the cooperative with fish skin
Fifteen women make up the Piel Marina cooperative who is dedicated to this task, among them Sosa and Castro.
Sitting at a table by the sea, While the last fishermen arrive to deliver the day’s catch, both women scrape the skins of bass and croaker with a metal spoon to remove any remains of meat. With their hands they also remove the scales.
Previously, the skins were thrown into the sea, but now they are tanned and dyed to make leather that is used to make “jewelry, earrings, necklaces, bracelets”Sosa explains to AFP.
In the future, they also hope to make bags, purses and shoes, the 70-year-old adds.
“Super recycling”
According to the UN, the fashion industry is responsible for between 2% and 8% of greenhouse gas emissions in the world and 9% of microplastics thrown into the sea. It also underuses materials worth $1 billion a year.
The women of the cooperative themselves they make jewelry objectsbut They sell the leather to textile factories from the Puntarenas area, the main port on the Costa Rican Pacific, located 50 km south of Costa de Pájaros.
“It’s very innovative,” says Castro.
Using waste to make new products is part of the concept of “super recycling,” designer and biomaterials researcher SofÃa Ureña tells AFP.
“We start from the fact of giving an extra use to what is called waste in another production chain,” adds the expert.
“At first we didn’t believe”
The artisanal fishing It is one of the economic engines of this area and the boats crowd the coast, but the business is in decline and fewer and fewer go out to work.
This cooperative represents “female empowerment” in the Puntarenas area. “It magnified” the women who participated by removing them from domestic chores, Castro highlights.
Up to 15 families from this area where one in three adults is unemployed and 14% of the population lives in povertyaccording to official data, receive income from the business.
“At first we did not believe in this challenge because we said: how can skin, which is something that gets stinky, which is a pollutant, become raw material for women to be able to get ahead?” says Castro.
But they became artisanal tanners with the help of the NGO MarVivawhich trained them and provided financing.
“Clean first, then we take it and wash it with soap, as if we were washing clothes. We dye it with glycerin and alcohol and (natural) dye and then we put it to dry,” explains Sosa while working on cleaning a piece of skin.
The leather is ready after eight days: four to treat the skins and four more to dry them in the sun. It is soft, elastic and resistant, as well as waterproof. And it no longer smells like fish.
Heading to the catwalks?
Although the business of this cooperative is consolidating, the women who participants want to go beyond jewelry.
Their “dream” is to “go out into the foreign market” and for the leather they make to be used in creations of great designers sustainable fashion.
Global fashion trends point towards environmentally responsible production. Recycled and natural materials are gaining weight on the catwalks, according to UN studies.
“The most sustainable and sustainable garment is one that already exists and does not involve the expenditure of new resources,” says Ureña.
“I would like it to be seen in Hollywood, on the big catwalks in Paris, where the great (designers) are,” says Castro excitedly.
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