Oriente Salvaje · El Salvador
The minuta vendors were already caring for this beach
Minuta Responsable backs them with compostable packaging, health permits and the recognition their work deserves.
Holding a minuta right now?
When you finish, hand the packaging back to the vendor. It doesn't go in the trash: it becomes compost.
It's made from sugarcane bagasse, certified for home composting by TÜV Austria and free of PFAS.
Shaved ice, syrup and three dollars
A minuta isn't a tourist product. It's what people here have always drunk, what you remember from the beach as a kid.
Behind every cart is a family that lives on it.
We came to teach. We found something else.
Of the eleven minuta vendors we interviewed, ten were already picking up the litter around their stand on their own. Nobody asked them to. Nobody gave them credit for it.
The problem was never the will. It was the packaging.
Every minuta was served in styrofoam, which breaks into small pieces, the wind carries them off and the sea scatters them. There's nowhere to take them on the beach: no collection, no recycling, no option.
Nobody was doing it wrong. They were doing the only thing they could.
What the project does
Packaging that turns into compost
Sugarcane bagasse, the fiber left after milling. Certified for home composting and free of PFAS. The kraft paper band composts along with the packaging.
Health permit
A food-handling certification drive run with the national health regulator. Free, with the card issued the same day.
Identity and recognition
Photo ID, apron, pennant and sign. The difference between being an informal vendor and being a recognized part of a World Surfing Reserve.
Return and composting
Returned packaging is collected at Las Flores Beach Resort and taken to composting. What started as minuta packaging ends up as soil.
How the return works
You buy your minuta
Served in its compostable packaging, with the band on.
You hand it back to the vendor
When you finish. Every cart has somewhere to receive it.
We take it to compost
It's collected and composted. In a few months it's soil.
If the packaging ends up in regular trash, the whole purpose is lost. That's why the return matters as much as the packaging.
The pilot
Oriente Salvaje is El Salvador's first and only World Surfing Reserve, designated by Save The Waves Coalition in November 2024. It covers the municipalities of Chirilagua and Jucuarán.
This pilot solved the bowl. It didn't solve everything.
The cup is still pending
A large share of minutas are served in a cup, and today there's no bagasse cup available in the volumes this project needs. That's the work of the next phase.
There are more beaches
The pilot covers five. The eastern coast has many more, with vendors in the same situation.
The support has to continue
Permits renew every year. Packaging runs out. A six-month project doesn't sustain a permanent change.
How to support
Minuta Responsable exists thanks to Save The Waves Coalition and Surf City El Salvador. To reach the next phase we need more partners. Tap a card to contribute that amount.
Need a tax-deductible donation receipt? Email us at orientesalvaje@gmail.com with your tax ID and we'll send it to you.
Represent a brand? Every cup with its band is visible presence on the beach, every day, in people's hands. Brand sponsorship is arranged directly: orientesalvaje@gmail.com
Who's behind it
ADETCO
The tourism development association for El Salvador's eastern coast, the implementing body of the Oriente Salvaje World Surfing Reserve.
Save The Waves Coalition
Pilot funding and the World Surfing Reserve designation.
Surf City El Salvador
Sponsorship through CORSATUR.
