Robin Minchom spends a day with Rosa and Chavez, two of thousands of urban recyclyers – known locally as cartoneros - operating in Buenos Aires. Working from 3-11pm, six days a week, the couple search for recyclable material on the streets of the capital, forming an integral part of waste management in the city.

Camera and Editing: Alejandra Leon

Whether you’re a local, a fully-fledged expat, or someone living in Buenos Aires for a few weeks or months, it can sometimes be difficult to find ways to give back to the community. By giving back, we don’t just mean volunteering, but ways of helping with the community or the environment in big or small doses.

Sometimes it’s a language barrier, or occasionally just a cultural one, but many people find the idea of helping out pushed to the back of their minds. We at The Indy recognise the importance of being socially and environmentally conscious, so this week’s Top 5 aims to help you on your way to giving yourself a pat on the back.

Give Blood

Giving blood at the children's hospital is easy and well-marked (Photo: Trillia Fidei-Bagwell)

Whilst giving blood might seem like an obvious way to give back to any community, it’s a simple gesture that slips from your mind when you’re in a foreign place where facilities might not be as accessible as you’re used to.This is especially the case in Argentina, where donating blood is not a cultural norm. Here, blood diffusions commonly come from family members or friends of the recipient and, unfortunately, this isn’t always practical and doesn’t provide nearly as much blood as the country needs.

Non-profit group Dale Vida recognised a lack of government commitment to promoting what they considered a necessary medical need. Thinking outside the box, they set up an independent campaign which extends its appeal to visitors to the city too. Located at the Dr. Ricardo Guitérrez Children’s Hospital, Dale- Vida provides a service that enables donors to give blood easily with the support of English speaking staff.

You have to undergo an evaluation to ensure donation will be suitable for you, but, all in all, it should only take a morning. As long as you’re aged between 18 and 65, weigh over 110lbs (50kg) and have healthy, disease-free blood, you’re a fit candidate for helping others. And all the extra iron from the steak you’ve been eating can finally be put to good use.

Dale Vida can be found at Hospital de Niños Dr. Ricardo Gutiérrez on Mondays-Fridays. Identification is required to give blood. For more information please visit their website or Facebook.

Shop Eco-Friendly

Mercado Bondpland, at Bonpland 1660, offers local, fair trade, and organic products (Photo: Trillia Fidei-Bagwell)

Argentine shops love plastic bags. They love them. If you’re tired of protesting that you really don’t need those two plastic bags to carry home your very heavy load of four yogurts and some carrots, an easy way to avoid the plastic and become eco-friendly is to shop with a reusable canvas bag. Most supermarkets sell them and it’s a small step towards reducing the 40% of landfill waste which currently comes from plastics in Buenos Aires.

Shopping eco-friendly can also mean shopping in specific places. Many clothes shops, such as Cúbreme, pride themselves on being organic, fair trade or supporting local Argentine textile industries. Buying your organic groceries at cooperative markets such as Iriarte Verde in Barracas or Sabe la Tierra in its quirky setting of San Fernando train station, can also go a long way. For more information on cooperative markets and eco-friendly shopping visit our Top 5 Farmers Markets.

Shop Ethically

“Economía solidaria” or “economic solidarity” is making an impact in Buenos Aires, with many organisations taking innovative and socially conscious approaches to consumerism. Organisations such as Mundo Alameda, support cooperatives born from social movements, student unions and self-managed workers promoting fair trade and worker equality.

Another name worth knowing is Red Tacuru, a ‘buy online’ service bringing together many cooperatives selling food, films, beauty products, clothes and mate.

In the heart of Palermo Hollywood, the stalls of Mercado Solidario Bonpland, (also featured in our Top 5 Farmers Markets) are either based around the philosophy of Economía Solidaria, or are eco-friendly and ethically sourced.

Eloisa Cartonera project (Photo: Agus Carini)

But sometimes you don’t need to look beyond the high street to find support for worthwhile causes. Cosiendo Redes is a project that trains people (mainly women from the villas) in textile production. It not only teaches them how to make clothes, but also how to find jobs, connect with future employees, and even set up their own workplace or cooperative.

Big brands such as Rapsodia, Tramando, Maria Dappiano and Maria Cher, have got behind the project, employing people once they’re trained and providing financial support to the scheme.

Alternative ethical projects can be found everywhere for socially-conscious consumers. Eloísa Cartonera publishes over 200 titles from local and famous Argentine writers, but their La Boca studio is anything but a conventional publishing house. Their books are not only made from materials purchased from local cartoneros, but the company also functions as a community cooperative.

Volunteer

The term “volunteering” can mean many different things to different people. For some it’s a full time job, working in a school, building houses, or teaching a foreign language but, for many others, it can something done alongside or in addition to their full-time job.

There are many ways to volunteer locally (Photo: Barnaby Wasson)

Red Solidaria is a volunteer organisation that connects volunteers with those in need. It offers a wide range of options making it a perfect choice for those who can’t donate all of their time.

It offers small but equally effective initiatives including, for example, donating clothing to villas, or putting together bundles for poorer families affected by the consequences of the recent volcanic ash in Patagonia.

The website hacercomunidad.org offers more information on ways to volunteer in Buenos Aires, listing events, ways to get involved and a directory of altruistic organisations in your area.

Remember that some of the larger volunteer organisations take a big cut of the money you pay to volunteer, which is especially difficult to understand when you’re staying with a poor family. Look for smaller organisations, or if you’re feeling brave enough, go along volunteer somewhere directly in person. Cutting out the middle man means you’ll know exactly how your money is being spent and see it go to better uses.

For more information, have a look at our previous articles on volunteering, our directory listing of organisations, and some recommended bigger projects in our Top 5 Volunteering Organisations.

Sort Your Rubbish

A family of cartoneros (Photo: Dan DeLuca)

The cartoneros have become a familiar aspect of life in Buenos Aires. Whether you’re sightseeing in downtown Monserrat, tangoing in San Telmo, or taking tea in Recoleta, the sight of someone sifting through rubbish delivers a reminder that Argentina is a country still dealing with immense poverty and income inequality – the dual Argentina that Borges so loved to agonise about.

Cartoneros command a surprising level of respect in Buenos Aires for the important function they perform in terms of recycling. With a distinct lack of recycling initiatives, most waste in Buenos Aires goes directly to landfills. Cartoneros pick up around 10% of recyclables, so by sorting your rubbish into different piles you’ll not only make recycling more accessible, but also provide a sense of cooperation to the cartoneros, making the task of rooting through your rubbish a less degrading job.

Photo by Sanra Ritten

 

The first recycling classification plant in Buenos Aires, which celebrated its one-year anniversary in May, is still working far below its projected capacity.

The plant, in barrio Bajo Flores, has the infrastructure to receive 120 tonnes of waste a day with a workforce of up to 180 people. However, it currently employs 30 and receives three tonnes of waste a day, one of which is recyclable. The plant was set up by the city department of environment at the request of a local cooperative of cartoneros, the Ecological Work Cooperative of Recyclers from Bajo Flores, or C.E.R.B.a.F.

Cartoneros are self-employed urban recyclers, a livelihood that proliferated after the 2001 crisis when many people lost their jobs and needed to find alternative forms of income. The government’s website spouts that the plant generates more jobs, more supplies for the industry, diverts waste from the landfill and betters the quality of the city’s environment.

Unfortunately, the plant is generating very little work in a neighbourhood that badly needs it, Bajo Flores being one of the poorest in the city. “It makes me sad because there are so many people who want to work here, but we just can’t hire them until we receive more recyclables to pay more wages,” explained María del Rosario Méndez who oversees the warehouse. Méndez began working with the cooperative in 1991, when they separated recyclables in the street.

The government set up the warehouse and then handed it over to the cooperative to run entirely on its own. All the money it generates from the sales of the recyclables goes directly back into the plant. If the plant were working at full capacity it would easily be self-sufficient, but at present it is often short of cash. “This is a serious problem because enough recyclables to pay for the wages and bills just don’t arrive,” said Francisco Monzón, president of the cooperative. “We have a monster and we aren’t feeding it.”

Monzón suspects that because they are located in one of the poorest neighbourhoods, consumption levels are lower and the people generate less waste, hence less recyclables. But that still does not explain why out of the 5,000 tonnes of waste a day that is generated in Buenos Aires only three make it to the recycling classification plant.

Gustavo Lorenzo, director of institutional relations of Urban Hygiene, explains. “From the moment that trash becomes a source of capital and not just waste, various sectors want to take control of that capital, private companies and the cartoneros, who have very little power in comparison.”

“Government companies, like banks, are suppose to come and bring materials, but they never do,” said Méndez.

But rather than having a defeatist attitude Monzón confronts the obstacle, “If they don’t bring us materials then that’s just more of a challenge for us, we have to go out and start looking for recyclables.”

Photo by Sanra Ritten

 

The plant actually has even bigger goals than just recycling; in fact, they have already opened up their space to the community. Once a week there are classes for cartoneros about road laws and regulations, three times a week there is an after-school tutoring programme and soon they want to start having senior citizen yoga classes. They also are collecting children’s books, salvaged from the garbage, to send to a school in one of the northern provinces of Argentina.

On 7th May 2007, just a few days after their one-year anniversary, the Environment Minister, Juan Velasco, made his first trip to the plant. “For a year no-one paid us any attention,” said Monzón, “but now at least they came here.”

The government, in a scramble to alleviate the landfills in Greater Buenos Aires, two of which will be closing at the end of this year, is currently distributing 12,000 new recycling bins throughout the city. The bins will require residents to separate their trash at home, a concept foreign to most Argentines. Additionally, there are many critics of the new campaign, the introduction of which coincides with the upcoming elections.

Lorenzo said that ‘this government did not have a clear plan’. But now that the government is changing, ‘we just have to wait to see what happens’.

The director of the city regulator, which controls the quality of public utilities, Miguel Von Rozenberg, said that the campaign ‘has a high degree of improvisation’, and that it is going to create inequalities amongst neighbours, because only 24% of the city will contain bins. He also complained that there was not an assessment of the needs of each neighbourhood that they will be placed in.

Photo by Sanra Ritten

 

The campaign, which seems too many that it is being introduced to the city much too quickly, is a direct result of the ‘Zero Trash’ law. The law, passed in February 2006, was also criticised by many environmentalists because it seemed unrealistic, establishing that Buenos Aires will reduce its trash by 30% by 2010.

“Places in the United States and Germany, for example, recycle a lot but it took years for that consciousness to develop, it can’t happen in a month,” said Monzón. Developing a recycling consciousness in the city, according to him, is the most important task. “The city itself doesn’t have the system of separation in origin and every government that passes through tries to put in a programme like this which just takes away work from the cartoneros.”

A recent study by the University of Buenos Aires shows that cartoneros already recycle 550 tons of waste a day, a considerable dent in the overwhelming amount of trash generated daily.

Monzón strongly believes that the solution is to give work to the people who have the most understanding of the subject matter, which would be the cartoneros. Therefore, he said, “It would be a lie to say we support the new containers.”

Still, no-one knows for sure what the changes will bring for the cartoneros or if they will result in the delivery of more waste to the recycling classification plant.