From Truth Out: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13879-zero-waste-including-grassroots-recyclers-in-buenos-aires-argentina
By Maeva Morin and Cecilia Allen
Sunday, 13 January 2013
“Environmental Possibilities: Zero Waste” features new ways of thinking, acting, and shaping government policy that are circling the globe. Each week, we highlight a success story in the zero waste movement, excerpted from the report On the Road to Zero Waste: Successes and Lessons from Around the World by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). GAIA is a powerful worldwide alliance of more than 650 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries. Their collective goal is a just, toxic-free world without incineration. Other Worlds is excited to promote the work of GAIA and the organized communities it works with, and hopes that the stories inspire you and others to begin moving your home, town or city, nation, and planet toward zero waste.
The story of waste management in Buenos Aires illustrates how cartoneros, or grassroots recyclers, have won legal and financial support from the city government. As recently as 2001, waste picking was illegal. Since then, cartonero cooperatives have organized themselves, educated residents on the environmental benefits of recycling, and lobbied the city government for a cleaner approach to waste management with allied environmental and social organizations. The result: an about-face in the city’s approach to waste, including separating at source and giving waste pickers exclusive access to the city’s recyclables.
The Implementation of a Legal Framework
Traditionally, the city of Buenos Aires relied on landfilling to deal with its waste, and cartoneros operated without public recognition or legal sanction. In 2001, Argentina’s serious socioeconomic crisis led to a dramatic increase in unemployment, and many people in the city resorted to collecting and selling recyclable materials from the streets in order to survive. In fact, it is estimated that 100,000 cartoneros were working in the metropolitan region of Buenos Aires in 2001.
In 2002, zero waste legislation created the Urban Recyclers Program and annulled the decree that had banned waste picking in the city. Further objectives included prioritizing separation of waste and setting targets for reducing waste taken to landfills.
However, in practice the law was barely implemented. Consequently, between 2005 and 2011, new resolutions were passed that required each collection company to design and construct a resource recovery facility, or “Green Center,” in the area it serviced, as well as provide the equipment, machines, and other elements necessary for it to operate. The activities of sorting, baling, and storing of materials for sale were to be managed by the cooperative of waste pickers assigned to each Green Center.
Continue reading at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13879-zero-waste-including-grassroots-recyclers-in-buenos-aires-argentina
