Cabo Corrientes Honors John Benus for "Campaña Contra La Basura"

EL TUITO, Jalisco — The municipal government of Cabo Corrientes has formally recognized John Benus, creator and director of the "Campaña Contra La Basura" (Campaign Against Trash), for his sustained volunteer work mobilizing local students, schools and residents against the chronic litter problem in the municipality's communities.

The framed Reconocimiento, signed by Municipal President C. Joaquín Romero Bravo on May 12, 2026, cites Benus "for his drive and work during the Clean-Up Campaigns Against Trash carried out in this Municipal Capital." It was presented at the cabecera municipal in El Tuito on behalf of the 2024–2027 administration.

A grassroots model: signs, grabbers, and a seven-point lesson

Benus's program, also branded as "Guerra Contra La Basura" — War Against Trash — combines three simple ingredients: visible signage in Spanish posted along village streets and at community gathering points, hands-on neighborhood cleanups using long-handled litter grabbers, and a one-page educational flyer distributed to schoolchildren.

The signs themselves carry a direct message in green, red and blue: "Campaña Contra La Basura — No Tire Basura — Gracias," closed with the slogan "Conserva Cabo Corrientes Hermoso." (Earlier versions used "Conserva Jalisco Hermoso" and "Conserva México Hermoso," reflecting the campaign's stepped rollout from state to municipal partnership.)

The educational flyer, headlined "Education is the Solution," pairs a "Years to Decompose" infographic — plastic bottles take 450 years, glass bottles 4,000, sneakers 200 — with a seven-point manifesto that asks readers, including children, to become "Environmental Ambassadors" in their own neighborhoods. The opening point is blunt: "Everything you throw into your street or anywhere, eventually during the rainy season, goes directly into our Bay or Ocean."

Schools are the center of gravity

Photographs from recent campaign activities show Benus alongside large groups of secondary-school students in maroon uniforms, each carrying a red-handled grabber, ready to fan out through their own villages. A second set of images shows older youth — roughly forty young adults — gathered at the Edificio Líderes community building, holding the "No Tire Basura" placards before heading out on cleanup routes. A third group, primary-school children, are pictured clutching the seven-point flyer they had just received.

The pattern reflects the campaign's working theory: littering is a learned habit, and the most efficient way to change it is to recruit the youngest members of a community as messengers back to their own families.

A foreign volunteer working inside the municipal structure

Benus, whose business card lists a U.S. mobile contact (+1 415-331-0100, also reachable on WhatsApp), operates as Volunteer Coordinator of the campaign. He works in coordination with the Cabo Corrientes municipal government, which has lent both visual identity — the Cabo Corrientes logo now appears on the campaign signs — and the institutional backing needed to enter schools and post signage on public roads.

The recognition presented in El Tuito formalizes what had already become visible on the ground: campaign signs nailed to palm trees on dirt roads outside coastal villages, garbage bags filled and stacked at the end of cleanup mornings, and groups of students posing with their grabbers raised at the close of each event.

How to get involved

Residents, school directors and community leaders in Cabo Corrientes — and elsewhere in the Banderas Bay region — who want to bring the campaign to their own colonia or pueblo can reach John Benus directly at +1 415-331-0100 (WhatsApp available). The campaign provides signage, grabbers, the bilingual educational materials, and on-site coordination at no cost to participating communities.

As the closing line of his flyer puts it: "It's everyone's responsibility to keep our planet clean, no matter where you live or what country you're from."

Photos: Campaña Contra La Basura activities in Cabo Corrientes, 2026.