Ale Valdez / Ecolana

“Technological and social design to improve recycling / Making the realities of recycling visible and connecting people to recycle more and better.”

Ale Valdez is an Environmental technician and Environmental Systems Engineer from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, passionate about environmental issues since the age of 15. Throughout her career she has dedicated herself to the scientific study of urban water body contamination and to volunteering for their cleanup, as well as to educating and raising awareness among citizens and companies on climate change, environmental impact and waste reduction. She is co-founder of Ecolana, the social enterprise seeking to change the paradigm of waste management in Mexico through a digital platform that helps citizens connect with the recycling value chain and helps companies support their consumers in reducing waste and recycling more. Ecolana currently makes more than 6,000 recycling locations available to citizens across Mexico and has provided recycling information and training to more than 1 million people, working alongside some of the country’s largest consumer companies. Ecolana’s work has received numerous recognitions, including the Clean Energy Challenge 2019 award granted by What Design Can Do, the Cartier Women’s Initiative fellowship in 2020 and the Shell Live Wire program recognition in 2022, among others.