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From Spain, a Creative and Eco-Friendly Way to Beat the Heat

A crochet teacher and her students beat plastic with recycled fabric

By Rain Noe - August 16, 2021

in Sustainability

Southern Spain is no stranger to hot weather, and the town of Alhaurín de la Torre, in Malaga, has used plastic awnings to shade its walkways for years. But three years ago, the City Council's Department of the Environment wanted to ditch the plastic in favor of a more eco-friendly solution. They found their solution-provider in Eva Pacheco, a local crochet teacher.

Pacheco and nearly a dozen women, all students of hers, used recycled fabric to crochet this eye-catching assemblage of sunshades for the town:

Rolled out each summer for the past three years, the sunshades—which are added to by Pacheco and her students each year—is now up to roughly 500 square meters (5,381 square feet) of fabric.