Daniel Alberto Vartanián Alarcón

With the participation and cooperation of both business and individual community members, Daniel Vartanián creates artificial marine reefs out of used tires. This effort at once reduces a serious solid waste threat and increases marine stock, providing an important source of income for declining coastal villages.

There is a serious problem of solid waste disposal of used tires in Costa Rica. These tires either fill landfills or are used as highly-contaminating fuel. Another serious concern for Costa Rica is that coastal marine resources are rapidly declining, putting at risk the marine environment as well as the livelihood of family fishermen. Daniel's program uniquely unites these two concerns, resolving them both by turning used tires into an environmentally-safe means to restore marine stock. Traditional policy to protect marine life is to place restrictions on fishing. But such policies hurt people who find refuge from unemployment and lack of economic opportunity in fishing. Daniel's answer is to utilize used tires to build artificial marine reefs. This solution significantly increases fish stocks and partially resolves the problem of tire disposal. Tires are tied together and weighted down so that they will rest on the ocean floor, at a depth of 12 to 15 meters. The submerged structures provide microorganisms a place to adhere, which in turn provides a breeding ground for coral, algae, and invertebrates. In this environment, fish, lobster, and other creatures find a haven with food and protection, encouraging reproduction and growth. It is estimated that one cubic meter of artificial reef can create marine life for the equivalent of two kilograms of fish for a year. But the ingenuity of Daniel's program is really in the details. Daniel has been able to create partnerships among seemingly unrelated players and make potential opponents jointly dependent on a successful outcome. In his pilot project on the Nicoya Gulf, Daniel worked with a group of twenty fishermen to create an artificial reef that only six months later looked to generate four tons of fish per year. All members of the community were involved in the process. Local businesspeople donated transportation and materials. Fishermen provided the cords used to tie the tires together and transported them to the site. The success of the project brought national press coverage, government support, and further alliances. Hotels on the Gulf are now interested in working with Daniel's group to develop scuba tours and fishing tournaments. An additional component of Daniel's program seeks to find alternative uses for those tires he is unable to use in building the reefs. This will reduce even more the number of used tires contaminating the environment, and at the same time bring in funds to sustain reef construction. This aspect of the project will convert tires to rubber scrap and sell it for environmentally-safe, economically-productive use in construction and paving materials.

Tire disposal is a problem that affects all countries, but particularly those that have not yet developed the means to collect and process used tires in an environmentally-safe way. More than 625,000 tires are thrown out each year in Costa Rica, according to calculations by tire importers and distributors. When this non-biodegradable waste accumulates in open areas, it takes over productive land, clogs sewers and water supplies, and creates insect incubation areas. The Costa Rica Ministry of Health attributes a marked increase in Dengue fever to mosquito breeding grounds caused by used tires.

The greatest number of the discarded tires are used as fuel in sugar mills, resulting in significant carbon dioxide emissions. This carbon dioxide appreciably affects the environment and contributes to the greenhouse effect. There are no other disposal alternatives currently available in Costa Rica.

Another serious environmental concern in many of Costa Rica's coastal regions is the decrease in marine stock and diversity, usually the result of contamination and intense exploitation. In the coastal zone of the Nicoya Gulf, the principal fishing estuary of the country with a population of more than ninety thousand people, fish captures have fallen from 5,500 tons annually in the 1970s to 3,400 tons annually in the 1990s, while the number of fishermen has increased. This loss of fishing income has serious consequences. Unemployment is high in many of these areas, and small-scale agricultural production, another local source of income, is also declining as it runs up against international competition. Fisherman have begun to remove their children from school as young as age ten to help with fishing in the hopes of increasing their take.

Daniel's plan to increase reef production in the Nicoya Gulf and other parts of Costa Rica includes strategies that successfully unite the needs of seemingly unrelated parties and create a viable infrastructure for the long term. The plan aims for recycling or proper disposal of all of Costa Rica's used tires. Daniel wants to promote the collection of tires appropriate for reef building, while facilitating disposal of all others.

The Firestone-Bridgestone company is the only manufacturer of tires in Costa Rica. Approximately 2 percent of all tires the company produces do not meet international standards and must be disposed of before sale. Firestone pays to bury them in landfills, so it has an incentive to find cheaper alternatives. Firestone gave Daniel the tires for the original project, and then committed to applying a surcharge of fifty cents on each new tire produced. The surcharges will go into a fund for the reef project. The four tire importers in Costa Rica have also agreed to fund Daniel's project through surcharges. Three of them further committed up-front support of $15,000 each for a seed fund to cover the collection of discarded tires. Of the 625,000 tires discarded, some 125,000 are suitable for reef construction.

Daniel makes use of existing organizations to facilitate construction. Most coastal areas have local fishing cooperatives. These groups make joint purchases such as freezers, and also receive government subsidies, such as reduced-price gasoline. The structure of cooperatives allows Daniel to coordinate efficiently with coastal communities, and their subsidies and preferences can be leveraged in reef production–for example, by utilizing their fuel-subsidized drivers for tire transport.

Daniel aims to provide the services of an umbrella organization, working with the fishermen's cooperatives in coastal villages. Daniel's organization will distribute resources and coordinate expert assistance. Fishermen will benefit in various ways. First, they will receive wages for reef construction work. Second, they will have larger takes from larger fish stocks. Third, the reefs will create secondary economic opportunities in their communities. Already, fishermen and divers are training for a certificate that will allow them to lead reef tours. The hotels lining the Gulf of Nicoya have expressed interest in coordinating such tours and other initiatives such as fishing tournaments.

Reef construction can be completed at a rate of 20,000 cubic meters per year, Daniel estimates, with marine output increasing by 40 tons each year. Once the model is proven successful in Costa Rica, it can be replicated anywhere there is a shallow bay protected from severe storms. As a first round of potential replication sites, he has identified areas in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Mexico as meeting these conditions. For the remaining 500,000 tires per year that are not suitable for building reefs, Daniel is working on a plan to sell them for scrap, thereby generating funds to support reef production.

Rubber tire scrap can be used to build roads or as a substitute fuel in cement production. The cement industry is an especially interesting potential buyer. Currently, cement manufacturers use bunker oil in their boilers, but rubber is a cheaper alternative. Rubber fuel is also clean environmentally. It is cleaner than bunker, and it is cleaner burned in the ultra-high temperature boilers of cement producers than it is when burned in many other factories, such as sugar mills. Cement companies therefore have economic and environmental incentives to change to rubber, and a widespread switch-over could create buyers representing $150,000 per year in revenues for Daniel's project. Although cement companies have not to date been able to make the capital investments required to switch to rubber fuel (rubber-grinding machines, necessary to turn rubber to scrap, cost $500,000 each), Daniel is exploring options for securing the necessary capital. Daniel has succeeded in getting Costa Rica's vice president to help with this effort.

Daniel has also brought on board the municipality of San José, Costa Rica's capital and largest city. Reacting to its problems with uncollected tires–they make waste collection more difficult and often clog sewers–San José has donated to Daniel a two-hectare site for a future rubber- grinding facility, and for immediate use in tire collection. In addition to these alliances with the San José municipality and with the vice president's office, Daniel intends to partner with other government entities as well. The federal government has keen interests in reducing the damage caused by tires that collect in open spaces and sewers, often creating breeding grounds for Dengue-bearing mosquitoes. In particular, Daniel has established relationships with the Ministries of Health, Tourism, and Environment and Energy.

Daniel was born in Argentina, the son of a Baptist minister. His father was actively involved in church community works throughout Daniel's childhood. While this meant the father was often absent, his commitment to service was ingrained in his children. After enlisting in Argentina's navy at eighteen and serving for several years, Daniel decided he wanted to live in a country with less of a military profile than his native country. Daniel moved to Costa Rica–a country with no armed forces–in 1977. He enrolled in the University of Costa Rica, concentrating in economics and economic development.

After graduating, Daniel worked for eight years in agrarian economic development and sustainability. However, he became increasingly frustrated with this work. He felt that many programs were being run ineffectively and that much of his work ended up being no more than grant administration. Daniel knew he wanted to make a more substantive contribution. A few years back, Daniel was hired to work on a study of the Nicoya Gulf. The biologists in charge of the study concluded that fishing in the Gulf should be banned to save marine wildlife. Daniel, however, disagreed. He was frustrated that the study did not take into account the human impact such regulation would have.

A diving aficionado, he has personal contacts in many coastal communities. Daniel knew there must be a sustainable way to protect the Gulf and at the same time allow fishing communities to survive. This was the genesis of his artificial reef project. Daniel received seed money from the United Nations Development Program for a six-month project to begin the first reef construction in 1999. Since then, he has been able to communicate the value of this project through the press, and has been uniquely successful in his ability to ally with multi-lateral, government, business, and community-based entities.

Over the years, Daniel has participated in a variety of other social initiatives. He has worked with the Lustitia Foundation on eradicating child labor, the United Nations-Costa Rica Federation for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, and Amnesty International's Costa Rica offices.