How a Colombian Influencer Made Recycling Cool

In an enormous warehouse filled floor to ceiling with plastic, glass and newspapers, Sara Samaniego lip-syncs to a rap song, dressed in her trademark blue jumpsuit and braids.

Ms. Samaniego, 32, is filming a video for the hundreds of thousands of followers she has amassed across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. She has won international awards, collaborated with celebrities and regularly gets stopped on the streets for photographs.

The topic that has earned her so much popularity? Recycling.

Through her colorful aesthetic and peppy persona, Ms. Samaniego brands herself as Latin America’s first recycling influencer, attracting a passionate fan base in Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, by educating followers on how to clean and sort their garbage through her character, Marce the Recycler.

Her work has also drawn attention to the often-overlooked community of informal recyclers who eke out a living redeeming recyclables.

Bogotá, like many cities in the developing world, has no government service for collecting items on a set schedule. Instead, it relies on about 26,000 informal recyclers, according to Consuelo Ordóñez, the director of the city’s public utilities authority.