CAF America does not accept donations of bottle caps in support of Banco de Tapitas A.C.’s work. If you are interested in donating recycled bottle caps, please visit bancodetapitas.org to learn more.
Operating under the motto, “If life gives you caps, don’t throw them away,” Banco de Tapitas encourages their local community to donate their bottle caps either directly to the nonprofit or to volunteer ‘ambassadors’ who collect the caps on the NPO’s behalf. After collecting the caps, the organization takes the supplies to local collection centers. From there, the centers financially compensate Banco de Tapitas to be able to reuse the material in the production of new items such as toys, utensils, even boats – all using the material from bottle caps.
Banco de Tapitas uses these sustainably sourced funds to provide children with free of cost cancer treatment which includes: chemotherapy, medication, oncological wigs, and ocular prostheses. They’ve even received donated land from the Municipality of Corregidora to build ecological shelters for patients who travel to the Bajío area. Patients and their families are able to receive free lodging and food at these shelters as they await and undergo treatment. In recent years, they’ve begun to further develop their shelters using funds received through CAF America. Since 2020, CAF America has granted over 11,500 USD to Banco de Tapitas. These funds enabled the organization’s ability to generate a significant stock of medicines and chemotherapies in their Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Puebla shelters.
Banco de Tapitas’ President, Edgar Cabrera states that by developing the shelter’s medicinal stock, the organization is now able to “redirect resources to other programs that work on the emotional level of each patient, which we believe is an important part of their recovery process. These programs are oncological wigs and ocular prostheses. Many of our patients who receive a wig or prosthesis feel a significant degree of insecurity in their daily lives. Thanks to CAF’s support, we have been able to strengthen these programs and serve more and more patients within these programs. Seeing a patient return to school or normal activities and see them happy, safe and brave, makes us fall more in love with life.”

In the years to come, Banco de Tapitas hopes to impact many more lives – this time by expanding their reach throughout Mexico. As of now, the organization holds two offices and three shelters. In 2022, the non-profit organization plans to unravel an aggressive plan to grow in two more cities, Monterrey and Querétaro: