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Take part in the Sustainable Camino: how to become an ecopilgrim

The Way with Correos

Take part in the Sustainable Camino: how to become an ecopilgrim

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27-08-2019

The Camino de Santiago is becoming increasingly popular. During 2018, over 300.000 pilgrims walked the Camino de Santiago. The Camino’s rich natural environment is being affected by the harmful practices carried out by some pilgrims that dispose of waste on the Camino. Plastics, cans and even pieces of clothing and shoes can be found on a daily basis on the different routes. 

To fight these harmful practices and help promote the preservation of the Jacobean Route, Correos and Pilgrim unite to make the Camino de Santiago a more sustainable journey. For this, we invite pilgrims to become ecopilgrims and join us by walking respecting the environment and helping to take care of the Camino with small gestures. Participating in this initiative has a double reward: we are preserving the Route and you will get a gift for it.  Just by participating in this initiative you will receive a direct prize and you can also enter giveaways of fantastic gifts.

How do I become an eco pilgrim?

Becoming a part of our sustainable Camino is easy and it entails picking up any plastics and cans you find along your itinerary to Santiago. You can get your eco bags to carry the waste in our Correos Offices on the French Way from León to Santiago and on the Portuguese Way from Tui to Santiago. You can also ask for our bags in albergues, in any of the Associations of Friends of the Camino de Santiago or in Pilgrim.

To certify that you have completed your eco pilgrimage, you can download the Pilgrim App where you will find the ‘sustainable Credential’. Here you will collect your eco stamps. How can you do this? Follow these simple steps:

Pick up your ECO Bag at our participating Correos Offices

Fill up your bag with plastic and cans you find on the Camino

Go to any of our participating Correos Offices

Scan the QR code you will find in our office

Get your ECO stamp

Collect 4 ECO stamps and earn a certificate of your Sustainable Camino

Make sure to dispose of your waste in the nearest Yellow Recycle Bin.

Share your ecotips and enjoy the rewards

Picking up plastics and cans that people leave on the Camino is just one of the multiple gestures you can do to make the route more sustainable, but not the only one. Through this initiative we encourage you to share with us all your recommendations to keep the Camino clean and make it a sustainable place. Small actions can make the Camino a better place:

Don’t throw away your waste

Pick up and recycle plastic

Don’t harm the environment

Raise awareness among other pilgrims

If you become an ecopilgrim and share with us your ecotips, you can earn several prizes, including a holiday stay to enjoy nature.

To enter these giveaways you just have to follow these steps:

  1. Take a video or photo with your ecotips on how to maintain the Camino clean
  2. Share it on your Instagram account using the hashtag #CaminoSostenible.
  3. You will automatically enter weekly and monthly giveaways of multiple gifts and the chance to win a fantastic stay in nature in “Cabañitas del Bosque”.

With your recommendations you can win all kinds of prizes:

  • Yellow Arrows
  • Camino con Correos Packs
  • Personalized Mugs
  • Pilgrim Shirts & Backpacks
  • Camino bracelets

And once a month you will get the chance to win a Correos Prepaid Mastercard with 50€. Thus, you will take your safe money on your next pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

If you are walking the Camino this summer, don't hesitate and become an ecopilgrim. Help us protect the Camino and be able to enjoy it for many years to come.

¡Buen Camino!


Comments
Doreen Ratigan
Thank you for starting this campaign. Buen Camino!
30-08-2019

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