Nancy Paniagua

Peruvian environmental activist leading Latin America's most successful plastic reduction campaigns through community-driven initiatives.

Nancy Paniagua (born 1985) is a Lima-based environmental leader who pioneered Plastico Cero, an initiative that inspired 12 Latin American countries to adopt single-use plastic bans between 2020-2024. Her Plastic2Work program employed 8,000+ waste pickers in recycling cooperatives, creating 200+ microbusinesses by 2023. In 2021, she launched BolsaPlástica, a blockchain platform tracking plastic waste flows, now used by 35% of Peruvian municipalities.

Her Plastic Literacy curriculum has been adopted by 500 schools across Andean regions. In 2022, her coalition secured a historic Peruvian Congress vote banning polystyrene packaging nationwide. Through her Marine Health Alliance, she led coral restoration projects in 12 coastal communities, replanting 50,000+ corals by 2024. Her 2023 TEDx talk Plastic is Not Our Enemy reached 2 million viewers, inspiring similar movements in Southeast Asia.