CEROPLAST AND OZEANO SWIMWEAR, A SUSTAINABLE LOCAL COMMITMENT

Raquel Díaz and Shaina Alonzo lead two projects: CeroPlast, which seeks to inspire people to live a life free of single-use plastics, and Ozeano Swimwear, their swimsuits made from recycled bottles.

To achieve a change in consumer habits regarding plastic and other pollutants, it's not enough to simply complain; it's necessary to take action. This is a clear premise for Raquel Díaz and Shaina Alonzo, who, through sustainable initiatives, aim to spread a message of awareness about the importance of caring for the environment.

Although it all started as a hobby for them, today, under the name Isla Eco, these two young entrepreneurs lead the CeroPlast projects, which seek to inspire people to live a lifestyle free of single-use plastics and promote their brand of swimsuits made with fabric from recycled bottles, Ozeano Swimwear.

With CeroPlast, they seek to eliminate single-use plastics by offering consumers sustainable alternatives. Do you think the Dominican Republic is on the right path to completely eliminating this type of plastic in the not-too-distant future?
Raquel: I understand that collective awareness has increased. In the two years I've been working hard on this, I can tell you that it's already a topic of conversation, a topic people are interested in learning about and educating themselves about. As a country, we're on the right track, although there's still a lot to do.

When you look at Ozeano Swimwear, it's almost impossible to tell they're made from plastic bottle caps. What process does this material go through to create a swimsuit?
Shaina: The fabric we use is made from recycled plastic, which is actually recycled polyester. What many people don't know is that regular polyester, which is widely used for swimsuits and activewear, is actually made from plastic, but a new kind. What we do is use a textile made from recycled plastic bottles. The advantage of this is that we save energy, carbon dioxide emissions, and water. The process actually reduces energy emissions by 50 or 60% compared to the traditional process. As for the fabric process, the plastic is first washed, then shredded, then passed through machinery that joins these small flakes together, and finally, it passes through another machine that joins them together and forms the threads.

There's a myth that if something is made from recycled products, it should be cheaper. Is creating things from recycled materials more expensive and complicated, or easier and cheaper?
Raquel: It's complicated because it's obviously a time-consuming process, more tedious, and even much more expensive. For example, the process of converting plastic into fabric isn't done locally; it's done abroad. Once the fabric is ready, we take care of the tailoring and printing, and all of that takes time and money.