Khalil Radi traveled to Nicaragua in 2018 to fulfill his dream of living in a bungalow and surfing every day. His plans changed when he discovered the beaches were littered with plastic bottles. Determined to do something about it, he initially thought of organizing a trash collection, but the locals told him they had bigger problems. The government’s violent crackdown on protests that year was driving away tourists, a main source of income, leaving many in the impoverished country unable to afford food. Radi came up with a way to address both hunger and pollution, creating the Zurich-based nonprofit Buy Food with Plastic. Two years on, his double-edged approach is catching on in a growing list of countries.
