[1][2] She is the founder and leader of Ciudad Saludable, a non-profit environmental health organisation based in Lima, Peru, and a Schwab Foundation fellow of the World Economic Forum.

This situation existed in other towns throughout Peru, where waste can often be found dumped into rivers, contaminating the drinking water supply.

[3] After writing her thesis, Ruiz came up with an idea for a new community-managed system of waste collection that she hoped would serve as a model for urban and rural communities around Peru.

[3] The group trains local business owners to collect and process the waste, providing employment in a community with a chronically high unemployment rate.

Ruiz was subsequently asked by the Peruvian government to come up with a national plan,[4] and led the creation of the first law in Peru (as well as Latin America) to regulate the activities of waste recyclers.