Garbage pick-up will not resume today as the CEAMSE recycling stations continue to be blocked by workers since Sunday.
The city government is asking the CEAMSE union (AGOEC) to use its “rationality” in the issue.
The secretary general of the AGOEC Jorge Mancini, explained that the reclamation of the plants is the “final alternative” before the “imminent collapse” of the sanitation sites.
The blocks come in part of a waste-refuse feud between the city and the province. On Saturday, the province of Buenos Aires, where the landfill and recycling sites are located, told the city that it had to 30 days to reduce the amount of waste coming in from the centre. Workers predict that if waste is not reduced, that the Jose Leon Suarez landfill will collapse by March 2013. This site is estimated to already be between 150 to 160 hectares.
However, the city governor said that reducing waste by 50% within the next 30 days is “completely near impossible”.
Workers also feel that the city has not fulfilled the Zero Waste Act of 2005.
“The situation is worrying because they have not realized the [2005 law] and the provincial law to reduce the volume of refuse,” stated Mancini.
Recently, Mayor Macri welcomed Greenpeace’s “Rainbow Warrior” ship and was urged by the interest group to enforce the Zero Waste Act.
The minister of the environment, Diego Santilli, has tweeted “They have continued to block CEAMSE … Please do not take out the garbage”.
