Meet Wanda Díaz: our hydraulic wheel!

Wanda Díaz is an innovative and pioneering system in Latin America that uses hydraulic and solar energy to collect and remove solid waste floating in the Juan Díaz River, preventing it from reaching the ocean.
⚙️ It combines engineering technology, clean energy, and the manual work of our team — proving that innovation can be a true ally of nature.

This project is built on three main components:
🔹 Engineering
🔹 Awareness and Environmental Education
🔹 Research

Engineering Component

The Wanda system operates with cutting-edge technology developed by Clearwater Mills in Baltimore, United States, complemented with locally designed and adapted elements.

🌊 The waste that flows down the Juan Díaz River is intercepted by two floating barriers:
1️⃣ The first stops as much debris as possible.
2️⃣ The second captures what passes through and directs it toward Wanda’s conveyor system.

The conveyor belt runs on hydraulic power and solar panels, lifting floating waste toward the sorting area.
👷‍♀️ There, our team manually separates recyclable materials:

♻️ PET (Type 1) and HDPE (Type 2) plastics are placed on a secondary belt that carries them to the storage center, where they are collected and packed for recycling.
🗑️ Non-recyclable materials are handled and disposed of responsibly.

 Awareness and Environmental Education Component

Alongside the work of Wanda and B.o.B., we collaborate with upstream communities in the Juan Díaz River basin to promote a culture of respect for water and the environment.

Since late 2021, we have reached:
🏫 More than 35 schools
👩‍🏫 Around 25,000 people, including teachers, students, community boards, health centers, and MEDUCA (Panama’s Ministry of Education) staff.

The program includes:
💬 Talks, workshops, and presentations on waste separation and recycling
🚛 Recycling activations with the Billy Truck Mobile Recycling Station, from Fundación Costa Recicla

The participating communities are located within the Panamá and San Miguelito districts, specifically in the neighborhoods of Belisario Frías, Arnulfo Arias, Rufina Alfaro, Omar Torrijos, Ernesto Córdoba Campos, and Juan Díaz — all part of the river basin.

🌿 This component also integrates the Wanda Educa program, which works directly with schools through six cross-cutting pillars of environmental education.

Research Component

The research component allows us to collect and analyze data on floating waste pollution within the Juan Díaz River basin.
📊 This information will be made available to decision-makers to support the creation of public policies, community projects, and tools that help understand the problem and design sustainable solutions.