Nohra Padilla is a Colombian environmentalist. She grew up in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

. She has assumed a leading position in the Association of Recyclers of Bogotá, and of the National Association of Recyclers in Colombia, which organizes about 12,000 members. She was awarded the

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...

in 2013 for her contribution to

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

and recycling in Colombia.

Background

Padilla grew up in a relatively poor family, and while a schoolgirl, from the age of 7, she helped her family with collecting recycles at the Bogotá municipal dump site. After finishing secondary school, she could not afford further education, and pursued with

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

for a living. Along with other "informal" (unpaid) recyclers, she co-founded the recycling association ''Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotá'' (ARB) in 1990, aiming to improve conditions for the

waste picker A waste picker is a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell or for personal consumption. There are millions of waste pickers worldwide, predominantly in developing countries, but increasingly in post-in ...

s, eventually assuming the position of executive director of the association. The National Association of Recyclers in Colombia was founded in 1993. As of 2016, the Association of Recyclers of Bogotá (ARB) represented 3,000 informal recyclers in Bogotá, while the National Association of Recyclers in Colombia (ANR) had 12,000 members. Originally the waste-pickers' sole income has been from resale of wasted items, but this changed in Bogota in 2013, when a public payment system was introduced, also including

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

medical aid Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

and

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

s. Padilla has eventually attended the university for studying

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

. She was awarded the

Goldman Environment Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...

in 2013.

References

Date of birth unknown Living people People from Bogotá Colombian environmentalists Colombian women environmentalists Year of birth missing (living people) Goldman Environmental Prize awardees {{environmentalist-stub