Slate roofs, stone walls and a five meter high plastic Christmas tree. Also stars, gift boxes, small trees on every street corner or in parks, balloons, buds in the shape of snowflakes or garlands. More than 15,000 empty water bottles are responsible for the fact that San Esteban de Valdueza (Ponferrada, León, 30 inhabitants in winter) saved the investment in Christmas decoration to adorn the streets of the village with this material so present in daily life, which the neighborhood has been collecting for months to give it shapes for Easter. The initiative began in 2024 and grew this winter thanks to popular involvement, with months spent working with plastic and looking for it in nearby bars. The mayor of this neighborhood, Diana García, values the social effort to show up at Christmas in a sustainable, ecological, community and inexpensive initiative: “We don’t even consider installing conventional decorations, in winter there are 30 of us”.
Big cities compete to establish themselves as Christmas capitals with millions of bulbs, fantastic parades, very expensive rococo decorations and all sorts of unaffordable battles for the meager finances of cities like these, where money is short but there is a lot of will. The idea was born last year, when we built a giant tree made of plastic bottles which ended up pleasing the inhabitants of this administratively dependent town of Ponferrada. The municipal mayor sums up this effort, which is widely welcomed and growing: “We are small, it’s economical and we give a second life to plastic. We don’t even plan to make classic decorations, in winter there are around thirty of us.” García details that they have been active since September: “In the summer we start planning what we want, coming up with ideas, we place posters throughout the city asking for the necessary materials and people keep them. This year we campaigned on Instagram and Facebook.” Physical and virtual word of mouth spread to surrounding bars, with consumption of these containers much higher than at home, and they were encouraged to collaborate with the supply. The San Esteban team accepts all options but in this second edition they have focused on the Cabreiroá brand bottles. Not for anything in particular, but because she was the major supplier of the establishments. “And it’s completely smooth. During the day, it’s blue, but at night, it’s transparent. It’s the one we had the most last year.”
It looked so beautiful in 2024, with a tree and a kind of candle, that they have now multiplied their creations: they have completed the giant five-meter tree, 10 2.5-meter trees, small trees for the park fences, stars with one and a half liter bottles, with the smaller ones a kind of baubles and numerous gift boxes – with their little bow and everything – as if Santa Claus or the Three Wise Men had struggled with the core. All based on 15,000 units and more that remained unused because, despite the tireless efforts of volunteers, we did not have time to use all the equipment. They also give a second life to clothes, paint cans, old pipes or pallets that serve as structures or supports for the abundant plastic.
“The neighbors were very kind, they went out Saturday after Saturday, in November every day, they took their work home,” thanks García, charged with duties towards the population because the sessions in a town hall room were not enough. At first, he says, “it was difficult for them to see the idea, but then they started building like crazy”, to the delight of the four children who usually reside there and those who come at Christmas, especially from Ponferrada, to have lunch or dinner with their families. Neighbor Ana Belén Barba, 41, praises the communion between children, grandparents and fathers and mothers to form units difficult to see in cities. “The children are delighted, they helped a lot by preparing a lot of decorations, placing them, they transported them all over the city and they wrote a text about it for the opening day,” says this mother, happy with the good relations between the miners of this city so involved both with the bar which still exists and with those who have shops or businesses, who contribute what they can. “In 2026 we want to continue. We are based on recycling, we have no economic resources and we do not aspire to anything other than recycling,” summarizes Barba.
This deployment required many hours of altruistic efforts, which yielded good results, and the municipal councilor announces that probably by 2026 they will continue their desire to reuse and recycle, but that they need to breathe, reflect and make new decisions: “We are running out of ideas, we need to rest. I’m sure there are people already thinking about it.”
About The Author
