To start something big and great, you don’t always have to write a long business plan and carefully study the market. The best ideas are often around us, waiting desperately to be picked up and utilised.

Friends Ana Luz and Julieta went backpacking for one year around Latin America in 2010, like thousands of other young people. But instead of taking pictures and hanging out at the beach, these two girls wanted to find a project that would connect all their interests and passions at once. It was an easy task, and very soon, Julieta and Ana Luz found what they were looking for. Garbage was all around them, wherever they travelled.

“We were spending an afternoon on a beautiful beach in Venezuela. At one point I gathered a few plastic bags and started cutting them. In about five minutes I got a lot of material for sewing,” Ana Luz recalls the travel experience that changed her life. Later, in Ecuador, both friends began collecting all the items they would normally throw away. And surprisingly, that small investment was enough to source the first materials for their new business back in Argentina.

The inspiring trip gave a name to their new, promising project. Feriado, Amor al Reciclado is now a successful and dynamic start-up with three main objectives: 1 – forming a new attitude towards garbage and its aesthetic role in production; 2 – generating awareness of new ecological culture, that includes an active and responsible attitude; 3 – creating a new tool to recycle and transform garbage into art.

Both innovative entrepreneurs actively work on expanding their business, learning new techniques, and producing great pieces of art. Among them are accessories for women, creative design materials, decorations, and others.

During their trip, Julieta and Ana Luz managed to learn from other professionals in their area and learn best practices. Once they got their hands-on experience, they found out the importance of sharing their know-how and opened courses in recycling and reproducing materials.

“Before we teach people to do things, we want to make sure they are worth the effort,” says Ana Luz after hosting a workshop at the recent FestEco event in Buenos Aires. Feriado, Amor al Reciclado is present at all important festivals and exhibitions related to ecology and environment.

Every course opens with a theoretical introduction, where the girls share facts about consumption and recycling, and educate on some basic methods to re-use the garbage. “We relate garbage with something dirty and useless,” Ana Luz starts her speech at a special workshop on plastic bags. She opens a huge trunk with an infinite number of bags of all sizes and brands. “We see cartoneros in the streets and think, ‘they are doing the worst job ever’. But we forget that garbage is a great business too.” Ana Luz distributes the tiny plastic bags and scissors to all participants. In only two or three minutes everybody has a long string that used to be a plastic bag. “Imagine, the average lifecycle of a supermarket bag is 20 minutes. This is the time you spend between buying your products and getting home. It doesn’t make any sense!”

Ana Luz is a proponent of responsible consumption and believes all products are 100% recyclable. The challenge is how to recycle them smartly and give them a second life. “The idea of our courses is not to make people consume less. This question is pretty complex and advertising has a great influence on it. What we want to achieve is to manage resources in a better way and to see an opportunity where others see only garbage.”

Julieta and Ana Luz are only 24, however, their energy and passion for the project ensures a great impact on the society they are part of. Their desire is to expand all over Latin America and educate more and more people, as a payback to their trip over two years ago. So far they are on a very good track, and they seem to make magic out of something so trivial and unwanted –garbage.

For more information about the project and workshops, please visit their webpage www.feriadoamoralreciclado.com

IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. The Indy features and promotes one project every week, with the aim of helping the creators finance and achieve their dreams.

With more than 1.1 billion smokers worldwide and more than 15 trillion cigarette butts thrown away per year, environmental engineer Cristhian Absalon saw a need to change the way we handle cigarette waste. After finishing his studies in Mexico City, Absalon chose to focus on the problem of cigarette butts, which he says, “represent almost 16% of the pollution in drains and sewers.” He spent four years designing this cigarette butt recycling project: Nicolecta.

Nicolecta will create collection points for cigarette butts in Mexico City. “The butts will then be recycled to create textiles, plastic, and even pesticides that can be used in agriculture,” he said. The cigarette butt treatment process is natural and does not harm the environment or the soil, he says.

According to Absalon, cigarette butts take 18 months to 10 years to decompose and the filters often contain toxic and non-biodegradable elements. Cities end up paying dearly in clean-up costs because cigarette butts clog sewer and drainage systems, which also causes heavy floods every rainy season.

For now, the project will remain only in Mexico City but Absalon hopes to expand to the rest of the country soon. “My hope is for this great movement to be carried out throughout the world, raising awareness and helping humanity to lead a better life.”

The money raised will be used to create and install the system of cigarette butt collection sites in different parts of Mexico City. This system will cut down on disposal costs and prevent overflowing landfills, Absalon says.

“It is such an easy thing to do, simply recycle waste,” he says. Absalon hopes to one day gain support of large companies and government for small projects such as Nicolecta.

He calls upon people to recognise the damage humans inflict on the Earth and encourages them to help in any way they can. “Every little bit helps, every little action of each of the 7 billion people on the planet today will be a great step toward a better quality of life for mankind.”

For more information about Nicolecta and how you can help, visit http://idea.me/proyecto/599/nicolecta.

With the slogan: ”All together it’s waste – separated it’s a resource”, Mendoza born Gabriela Seijo wants to get porteños into the habit of recycling their household waste by producing easy-to-use recycling bags.

Seijo has been a legislator for the city of Buenos Aires for more than ten years. A member of various commissions and boards, her special focuses are environmental questions and sustainability. It was the crisis in 2001 that encouraged her to step up her participation in politics and effect change for the people of the city. Since then she has served as an advisor in the Cabinet of Ministers and as general director of the CGP in the barrio of Palermo.

Seijo has created and been involved in many projects that aim to make the city more pleasant and sustainable for its citizens. Recent suggestions include: “A global smoke free day”, the support for “Earth Hour” in Buenos Aires, and a “Green Film Festival”. The festival idea was realised in August with 14 ‘green-themed’ movies, with the aim of spreading environmental consciousness.

With her current Ideame project, “Reciclario”, she wants households to start separating their recyclables. The central part of her project involves producing 1,000 sets of bags made of a hyper-resistant, sustainable, washable and, of course, 100% recyclable material, designed specifically for people to be able to separate these residuals in their houses in a way that makes it easier to recycle.

Each set of bags contains two bags: one green bag for mixed recyclables (plastic, glass, metal) and a blue bag for paper and card. They are designed to make it easy to carry them to the collection points.

The goal is to start a chain reaction. The first step is to encourage people to start recycling more regularly in their homes. 1,000 families will receive a free recycling bag to use in their homes. Seijo explains further: “We then hope that these 1,000 families that have been given the bags start influencing their friends and other families to do the same.”

To make it easier for families to adopt this new habit, Seijo has created a website where people, in a clear and fun way, can learn about what they can recycle and which kind of recycling bag it goes into. The website also contains information about collection points in the city, and fun and creative ideas on how to re-use and make the most of your waste.

Since “more than 50% of what households put in their waste bin could be recycled”, Seijo hopes to improve the statistics. “If we recycle this 50% instead,” she suggests, “we would reduce the waste we throw away and we could use it as resource material back into the production chain. We would both save the city money and give it a longer life.”

“As times are changing, we need to change with it,” Seijo concludes. Her intentions are to create a new relationship between politics and civil society to solve problems jointly. This method is especially important for environmental problems where it’s also up to the people to help solve the issue. “Together we, the citizens, can make a difference.” And it all starts with the first 1,000 bags.

For more project information visit Reciclario’s Ideame page:

Walking down the streets of Buenos Aires is often a sensory adventure – but not always in a good way.

In between wafts from bakeries and the glorious Roman-style columns, bags of refuse line every kerb. Street corners sometimes serve as collection stations, where dozens of bags sit and stink up the neighbourhood. Restaurants dump uneaten food into the same bins as computer parts and cardboard. Cartoneros – the city’s makeshift recyclers – rip through bins and bags for whatever can be sold.

This is just what people can see.

Beneath the surface, the situation is just as messy.

Out of the approximately 14,000 tonnes of garbage produced daily by the entire Buenos Aires metropolitan area, the capital’s share weighs in at about 6,000 tonnes. For years, that trash has been ending up in the Province of Buenos Aires’ landfills.

But if a new bill currently being debated at the Buenos Aires province legislature is passed, the province will not take it anymore – and the city will have to find new ways to deal with its own garbage.

Recent Stir Ups

Last week, Buenos Aires provincial senators Cristina Fioramonti and Alberto De Fazio introduced a bill that would slowly decrease the amount of waste entering the Province of Buenos Aires from other jurisdictions – namely from the city of Buenos Aires.

From the 14th January 2014, no waste of any type would be allowed to enter the province from another district.

“The issue of garbage has been dilating for quite some time, and we understand the need to resolve the issue for the sake of our environment and our health,” Fioramonti said, according to the Argentine legally-focused weekly Parlamentario. ”We will do whatever is necessary to get this bill passed and that it can be used in the future as the standard.”

The cherry on the garbage sundae is that the State Society for Ecological Co-ordination of the Metropolitan Area – CEAMSE, the publicly-owned solid waste management company – has stated that prices for the capital will be hiked 35% as of 1st June.

The move follows weeks of trash talk between President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Buenos Aires city mayor Mauricio Macri.

On 3rd May, President Fernández asked that “the city pays what it has to pay” for garbage per tonne, noting it is either that or “they should have it [the rubbish] processed in the city.”

In a press conference on 8th May, Macri accused the national government of trying to “bankrupt” the city.

“The attacks have to be limited,” he said. “We live in Argentina and we have a metropolitan area. An important part of the waste generated is from people coming every day to work in the city.”

Consuelo Bilbao is a co-ordinator with Greenpeace Argentina. She says the problem extends to the metropolitan area as well, but the capital is the biggest issue because it creates the most rubbish. While she points out that the city has to find ways to limit the garbage it produces, she notes the 2014 deadline that would close the province landfill’s doors would leave the city stranded.

“They can’t be closed,” she says. “Where will they put the garbage? There is no other new location. [...] We can’t prohibit it all, 100%. There isn’t a way, in two years, to stop it all, 100%”

Basura Cero

In November 2005, the government of Buenos Aires unanimously passed the “Zero Waste” law, which was supposed to decrease the levels of garbage produced in the city.

The law proposed measures to reduce waste, improve recovery and recycling, and decrease the toxicity of waste; it also is supposed to put more responsibility on manufacturers for their products.

The Zero Waste law states that using the 2004 baseline of 1,497,656 tonnes, the city should reduce the amount of waste being buried at landfills 30% by 2010, 50% by 2012 and 75% by 2017. It also says the city will prohibit the disposal of recyclable materials by 2020.

Despite the efforts of the Zero Waste law, Bilbao says the situation remains the same.

“Regrettably after so many years, because of a lack of investment, because they do not really want to change anything beyond the words of the law, we’re still burying trash,” Bilbao says. “Today, after so many years, instead of having less garbage as is in the law which was to progressively introduce methods of reduction, we have had a steady year-to-year increase.”

Francisco Pompeyo Ramos-Marrau is an urban architect working with the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services. He says he thinks the program is “better than not having anything.”

“It doesn’t resolve the problem definitively at all,” said Ramos-Marrau, who works in the department of urban planning and construction.

A “Below-Average” City

In comparison to the rest of Latin America, Buenos Aires is not particularly green.

In 2010, the business consultants Economist Intelligence Unit released a report on the environmental performance of 17 Latin American cities. Sponsored by Siemens, the report ranked the cities on a range of criteria like waste, sanitation, water and air quality.

Buenos Aires fell below average – with especially dismal performances in its waste management and sanitation.

The study said the city generates 606kg of waste per person per year, above the 17-city average of 465kg per year.

“This is the third highest rate of waste generation in the Index — only Brasília and Belo Horizonte produce more waste,” it reads.

Bilbao notes the city’s huge lack in organic composting. She says about 50% of the city’s solid waste going to landfill is organic material.

“If you want to separate your food and organic material out, no one comes to pick it up,” she says. “[It's] an important fraction, which would shrink this gigantic garbage pie.”

Urban environmental expert Nicholas You was a member of the panel that advised the Economist study. In an interview published alongside the study, he said that in Latin American cities everyone is responsible for a “slice of the problem” but no one controls the bigger picture.

“There are several obstacles, including short-term politics versus long-term planning, decentralisation and the lack of empowerment of local authorities, and overlapping jurisdictions,” he said. “But there is one key issue: who is responsible for doing what?”

Improvements and Options

The city has announced that next March, recycling stations will be available around Buenos Aires.

In an attempt to cut down the garbage, La Nación reported Sunday that although a few “ecopoints” have been set up in the city, many people near them do not know how to use them.

“The information that is available is not great, nor is there a number to call to come and look for things, at least in my neighborhood,” 32-year-old Paula Lombardi, who moved to Floresta nine months ago, told the newspaper.

Although there is a law against anything but interred garbage, on 9th May the state-owned news agency Télam reported that the city of Buenos Aires’ auditor Eduardo Epszteyn said he thinks the lack of interest in reducing garbage is part of a strategy to move toward incineration.

There have been no further reports on the topic. But Eduardo Giesen, Latin American co-ordinator for Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), an NGO against incineration which promotes systems of Zero Waste, says there are studies from around the world that show the negative impacts of incineration.

“GAIA and its allies in Argentina, who group themselves against incineration, celebrate the Zero Waste law,” he says. “But unfortunately, we have seen it employed in a manner that is deficient.”

Although she disagrees with incineration, Bilbao says Buenos Aires is on the verge of crashing if there are no major changes before 2014.

“We’re at a moment of collapse,” she says, noting that money is not a problem.

She points out that the city spends $1.5bn on garbage services, and only $200m on its minimal recycling programme.

“Is it that there isn’t money? Or is it that the money isn’t distributed well?” she asks.

Ramos-Marrau also says the city should treat its unofficial cartoneros better. With an official system, they would. He adds that the cartoneros should be given the opportunity to work in the centres.

“The working conditions of the cartoneros today should not exist,” he says. “It’s outside of labour laws. [...] They are workers. They are not people that are outside of the labour market.”

That said, Ramos-Marrau notes that garbage is just one of a slew of institutional problems in the city. Fixing the rubbish problem would be a “patch” on a much deeper problem. He says he thinks the city should no longer be the federal district of Buenos Aires, but that there should be an all-encompassing government that functions within the metropolitan area. He also believes the city should no longer be the actual capital of the country. He noted that the capital should move to a place like Viedma, which is according to law the capital of Argentina.

Ramos-Marrau also says that with regards to garbage in general, people have to start thinking of it differently, thinking of it as something that can be used in another way. He says there are better ways to dispose of and use municipal waste, which could be found through waste treatment plants and urban garbage factories.

“This is urgent,” he says. “This is immediate. This cannot wait any longer. They have to take enormous institutional measures. [It's] a question of jurisprudence, jurisdictions, and of decentralisation – it’s very difficult.”

Click here to find out what porteños think about the city’s rubbish problem.

Last week the government of the province of Buenos Aires introduced a bill that, if passed, will stop Capital Federal’s rubbish from being dumped in the province by January 2014. For decades the city’s rubbish has been going to landfills in the province, so now that the city might have to deal with its own rubbish, what will happen?

On top of this CEAMSE, the publicly-owned company which handles the city’s waste management, has announced it will be raising its prices by 35% as of June this year. All in all, the city has a big pile of rubbish on its hands, which if both changes go forward, will be an expensive problem too.

Allendria Brunjes investigates the details behind the new bill preventing rubbish being transported out of its original jurisdiction, while looking at the state of Federal Capital’s rubbish management in general. The Indy headed to the streets to see what the residents of Buenos Aires thought about the city’s rubbish and what should be done with it.

Juan Cruz, 27, Almagro, Employer

I believe the rubbish should be discarded in the province rather than the city, because the province does not have the physical limitations that the city has. The city does not have enough space to store or bury the rubbish. Needless to say, when the city dumps rubbish, it tries to make sure the rubbish is handled properly, and not form open pit rubbish dumps, or create pollutants. 

 

Ariel Vrangican, 32, Playa Blanca, Tourism Worker

They should have a spot where recycling and rubbish is put and dealt with – either a particular place, or a machine that gets rid of the rubbish and not just leave it. The capital’s rubbish matters and they must sort it out. Macri must tell the province that he is planning on dumping the rubbish there, and make sure there is some agreement in place. If he hasn’t done this, then I think it’s a problem, but if there is an agreement in place, then I think it’s fine. I think that if there is a plan in place, it should incorporate the opinion of all the people from the province.

Marica Sabbatini, 29, San Telmo, Artist

I think the topic of where to store rubbish is quite a complicated issue. In order to dump refuse waste, space is needed. It would be good to try and find a place in Capital Federal so to not compromise the relationship between capital’s government and the provincial government. If no place within the city can be found, Macri will have to negotiate with the provincial government to find a solution.

 

Maria Isabel Flores, 58, Belgrano, Ballerina

I think they should industrialise the city’s rubbish. I also think that the organic waste should be separated from what is not organic, and then the volume of waste would not be so big. Once this separation has been made, the organic waste is biodegradable, making the problem of where to put it much smaller. After this the city will just have to think about the other waste. I think that more focus should be put on recycling. In regards to where the waste should be put, I think that the production and separation of the rubbish would filter out a lot a recycling and be kept in recycling plants. After that, I don’t really know.

Alex Burin, 24, Villa Crespo, Student

The state of the rubbish in the city is disgusting. If it weren’t for the cartoneros there would be no recycling, which although is a good source of income for them, is a terrible reflection on our government’s system. I don’t know if there is enough space for the government to dump the rubbish in Capital Federal, so the only solution might be to put it elsewhere. If the government were more efficient about the way they collect rubbish, maybe there wouldn’t be as much of it. The main issue for me is the recycling and that money and effort should be put into bringing the city up to the standards of others.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

2012 starts the final countdown for a decision to be made in Argentina about its electronic waste. Whilst last year the Minimum Premises for the Management of Electric and Electronic Waste (e-waste) Bill was passed in senate with 54 positive votes against one, it is now waiting to be formally discussed in Congress for it to be nationally instituted, after a meeting at the end of last year failed to achieve quorum.

This portion of urban solid waste, which includes not only mobile phones but also computers, batteries, television sets and other household appliances, is growing faster as people renew their electronics more often than ever. Only in the last year, one million computers, ten million mobile phones and 400 million batteries were discarded in Argentina. Each inhabitant throws away an average of 3kg of e-waste a year, totalling 120 thousand tonnes nationwide. This problem, however, is not unique to Argentina: worldwide, it is estimated that between 20 and 50 million tonnes of e-waste is discarded every year.

“We need a regulatory framework for environmental protection at national level and [we need to] especially regulate the management of electrical and electronic equipment waste,” said senator Daniel Filmus from Frente Para La Victoria, who originally presented the proposal in 2008.

The 28-page long proposed law suggests that producers be legally and financially responsible for the management of electronics that are no longer used by consumers, as well as the prohibition of toxic substances to be used in the manufacturing of new products. It also establishes the creation of a national infrastructure for disposal, storage, transport, reuse and recycling of electronic waste in coordination with the Secretary for Environment and Sustainable Development.

According to Escrap, a network of operators of e-waste and by-products industry in Argentina, only 24-32% of e-waste is currently recycled, reused or treated in any way in Argentina. So far, the rest of electronics have other final destinations.

Between 35-40% is kept in households, offices and warehouses, as people are unsure of what to do with them. The remainder, a further 30-35%, is buried in landfills or left in open rubbish piles. There is also what Escrap calls an “informal sector”, groups who will look in these piles for cables, plates, engines or plastic and then sell them in “informal markets”.  

The dumping of e-waste is an environmental disaster. Most products are made up of metals and plastics that may take centuries to disintegrate, but also contain heavy metals and toxic substances which are damaging to our health and pollute the air, soil, rivers and water tables, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominateddiphenyl. According to a report released by Greenpeace, some of the possible effects of contamination are cancers, neurological toxicity (which may lead, for example, to memory loss) and damages to the circulatory, reproductive and nervous systems. Lead and mercury are particularly harmful to pregnant women and babies.

Greenpeace Argentina, who have been launching responsible e-waste treatment campaigns since 2007, have publicly expressed their discontentment with the lack of commitment from the government to reach a decision on the subject. “People talk a lot about how e-waste is the ‘garbage of the future’,” Yanina Rullo, the coordinator for the e-waste campaign at Greenpeace said. “It is not the future’s garbage: it is the garbage we already have now.”

She added that she thought the bill had “real financial potential” as it could generate jobs. So why is the government taking so long to reach a decision?

“Last year was a complicated one legislatively because of the national and the city elections and the lack of development of this law was because of that. These activities took four to five months from the regular statutory dynamics.”

However, she seems to think positively about the future ahead. “This is a bill which does not have serious opposition from the manufacturers, they have an understanding that this is something that will eventually happen as it did in Europe in 2003,” she explained. “Even the National Institute for Technological Industry [INTI] has supported and has been working on this issue for a few years now, as well as other environmental organisations. This has been a problem of political structure, which hopefully will be sorted this year.”

However, another critical point is the lack of recycling technology. In Argentina there are only around a dozen qualified operators who recycle between 2-15% of the e-waste, while the rest is exported to Europe where countries like France and Germany hold the technology to deal with more complex treatment of this kind of waste. With this law, the government will have to encourage the development of new recovery and treatment technologies in the country.

The subject of infrastructure, however, is relevant because although the government would be made responsible for establishing annual progressive goals in terms of the amount which is processed and also creating “reception centres” (to accommodate e-waste), the way these are managed, and how they will be able to cope with a sudden flow in e-waste, has not been clarified.

One organisation that is already working in the recycling front is Escrap, which is responsible for promoting the sustainable use of electronics from production to final disposal. They collect e-waste from companies and municipalities, separate their components (glass from metals, etc) and send them to smelters. The platelets (such as motherboards and keyboards) are sent to Europe to recover raw materials so as to be reused.

The director of Escrap, Gustavo Fernández Protomastro, does not seem concerned with the current lack of infrastructure. “This (bill) is certainly going to attract local and international investment to meet the demand.”

However, he was clear about Escrap’s goals. “What we want is for the government to establish a law which will speed up recycling and not the burying of products. It is easier to send the garbage for burial than recycling but it is not sustainable,” he said. “When people bury garbage, they don’t understand that there are those who they might be hurting or killing when they do it. We cannot bury forever. In the future, a battery will be recycled, not buried.”

Unlike Rullo, Fernández Protomastro is not concerned with the amount of time the government is taking with passing the law, arguing that “in Europe this decision took almost ten years”. He believes it is more important to create a law which is simple, coherent at both local and national level and within the understanding of both consumers and producers. This is because consumers need to be aware of returning their electronics to green spots and manufactures need to be prepared to cover the costs of collecting these goods and sending them to appropriate recycling and reusing centres such as Escrap.

“But it’s all a matter of cost-effectiveness. Unless money is involved, it is hard for people to do something about it. It’s like when buying beers, for example. If I return the used bottle it is cheaper the next time I buy beer. If there was some scheme like this with electronics, it would be easier for the law to work, because voluntarily it won’t. We humans do not understand the importance of caring for the environment, but it is necessary to manage that.”

Maybe 2012 will be the year when Argentina will do just that.

To find out what locals think of the issue, click here.

Read it and weep, consumers! Did you know that 5,000 tonnes of rubbish goes into landfills from Buenos Aires on a daily basis? And that Ceamse, the company responsible for urban waste management (which has a monopoly over rubbish collection) charges $66 per tonne of waste.

And for those of you who missed Cecilia Cartoceti’s excellent article on the new landfill in Zavaleta, there is more bad news: Law 9111, created by the military junta in 1978, states that 21 Buenos Aires’ municipalities must “exclusively” use the landfill system to dispose of their waste, thus eradicating any hope of recycling.

But it is the national government who is responsible for dictating the minimum standards for environmental protection. These should be abided by in the length and breadth of the country, while each province reserves the right to complement those standards.

In view of that, the national government sanctioned law 25,916 in 2004 to regulate household waste.

And, in 2006, Buenos Aires sanctioned the law 1.854, the so-called ‘Ley de Basura Cero’ (Zero Waste law). It establishes a gradual reduction in the disposal of solid waste through the adoption of a set of measures aimed at the reduction in waste generation, selective separation, recovery and recycling in the city. But this would obviously mean less money for Ceamse, who make a whopping $1.5bn a year cleaning the city.

So what can you do?

• Separate your rubbish for the cartoneros or take your rubbish to a recycling plant. Visit the excellent Donde Reciclo for a list of spaces close to you. It is a myth that if you put your trash out, it will be separated at the plant. In Buenos Aires the rubbish system has totally collapsed and anything not picked up by the cartoneros (and they only manage to collect 10% of all recyclables) will go straight into a landfill – or worse, an open-air dump.
• Stop using plastic bags! They are the most ridiculous waste of time, half the time they break and they are generally a plague in the city. The vast majority end up in landfills, where they take hundreds of years to decompose. While you are at it, you can leave unnecessary packaging behind too – 40% of the rubbish in landfills is packaging!
• Use returnable bottles. There really is no excuse in Argentina – beer, softdrinks, soda… it can all be found in reusable bottles. And as for water, get yourself a filter to stop buying all that bottled water!
• Make your own compost. It is really a lot easier than it sounds and stops all that horrible methane seeping out of the landfills. If all the organic waste is removed, we resolve that greenhouse gas issue, and you have some nice ‘black gold’ (no, not that kind) for your plants. Even if you only have a balcony, you can make compost. And it’s a myth that is smells – if you get your carbon (basically ‘wet’ materials – all kitchen scraps minus animal products and oils) and nitrogen (‘dry’ materials – leaves, paper, nut shells etc) balances right, it should not smell at all. The carbon part will smell, but use two small bins and fill the larger bin regularly. Visit Compostar for ideas on composters themselves, and this useful guide for how to compost. Down the line, I will write a more in-depth guide to this!
• Buy in large packages. A shampoo of 750ml vs one of 200ml means three containers saved. And as 40% of the rubbish in landfills is packaging… well, you get my point. And yes, I realise the 750ml bottle is bigger, but it is still at least two bottles saved from the bin! Which leads me to my next point…
• Use refills whenever possible. Think mayonnaise, shampoo – there is often a ‘soft’ container refill alternative (which is also often cheaper) which saves money and hard plastic heading to the landfill. With some products, you can even go and get your container refilled – like honey. There are many places to do this!

Buenos Aires is a city known for its garbage – the endless string of cartoneros picking through piles pitched onto the crumbling sidewalks every night, the trash-clogged storm drains flooding the streets during every heavy rain and sad reality that most recyclable materials are buried in landfills outside the city rather than reused.

But the artists of Buenos Aires-based Reciclarte believe that one person’s trash is somebody’s treasure. Alberto Vazquez and David Acevedo founded the group as part of a worldwide art movement connecting the public with the idea that everyone is responsible for the environment. So how is Reciclarte getting the message through? By hitting the streets and digging through the city’s garbage.

“We recycle, reduce and reuse for art. We use absolutely everything,” Vazquez says.

Alberto Vazquez is a doctor by profession – a specialist in human development, actually – who spends his free time rummaging the gutters and trash cans for old lighters, bottle caps and plethora of other refuse which he brings home with him in hopes of people coming to think differently about what they choose to throw away.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Vazquez says he believes absolutely everything is fair game when it comes to making art. His garage-turned-junk-wonderland is stunning proof that what we think should be thrown out when it is longer useful can always be made into something beautiful. Old perfume bottles, soda cans, plastic bags, bottle caps, wire, chunks of wood pulled from the Rio de la Plata or gutters, twisted scraps of metal, glass taken in the aftermath of car crashes, tea bags, coffee filters, McDonalds toys, plastic guns, CDs, lighters and discarded clothing are just a few of the items stored in the Belgrano workshop.

The group has two workshops, the smaller in north Belgrano and a larger space in Caballito for constructing metal sculptures and other huge pieces.

But whether it’s a sculpture made from melted plastic or a 3-D painting using nuts and bolts, Reciclarte artists don’t limit themselves. The artwork is as varied as the materials it’s made from; the importance of the piece comes from recognising its origin.

“We work with trash, so there’s no motive we’re trying to say about anything specific like the river; the theme of the art is anything. The materials are what produce the concept and send the message.”

Trashing History

“Being contemporary artists, we believe in the obligation to express the current situation of the world. In the 1900s Van Gogh had something specific to express, this century where we are exploring violence against the environment,” Vazquez says. “All human beings are responsible for the environment. Each one of us in Argentina is responsible for the quality of where we live.”

According to Vazquez, there are six artist groups who call themselves Artists for the Earth. The movement, which aims to get the public thinking about their impact on the environment has representatives on almost every continent. Reciclarte is the movement’s Argentine representative.

Trash Art – In The Street

“The people recognise plastic bottles or different element of trash in a piece. They are fascinated by the materials,” Vazquez says, “and all trash art is made to be touched by the people. In museums, it’s ‘don’t touch the art, don’t take photos’. We want them to touch the art, not just look but feel also. This is how you get the piece to have a lasting impression.”

Reciclarte truly is art for everyone. Children, who naturally can’t keep their hands out of anything, are especially susceptible to Reciclarte’s mandate that touch is of equal importance with sight. Another group forgotten by traditional artists – but included by Reciclarte – are the blind, who are allowed to feel the artwork and don’t have to stand back and hope someone will tell them what colours are present.

Apart from making serious art, Reciclarte artists don’t always believe in galleries. Most finished exhibits go right back out on the street for the normal public to see and touch.

Trashing Tradition

David Acevedo says that while the whole process is a new means of thinking about art, it’s also a social one – artists sifting through possessions people have thrown out as useless, transforming them, and putting them back in the street where normal people might walk by and take notice.

“A person who works with these materials is naturally in contact with the street and the people. It’s easier to work for a group than traditional artists who only paint. It’s more social,” Acevedo says.

So while the next empty coke can you toss into the gutter may end up being used to educate the public about the environment, Reciclarte is already working on their next project: Romeo and Juliet via garbage, coming to a street near you.

Reciclarte’s latest exhibition is on in La Boca until 21st January. Check it out at Olavarrías 818, Tuesday-Sunday 12-6 pm. Visit www.reciclarteargentina.com.ar for more information.

It should come as no surprise that Argentina is far from the forefront of socially and environmentally responsible development. If you have ever had soot blown in your face by a passing colectivo, looked out your train window as it leaves Retiro station, or tried to refuse a bag at a grocery store, you know that Buenos Aires has a long way to go before it can boast institutional environmental respect.

As the paradigm of sustainable development – that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” – becomes globally accepted as the best, if not only way forward, the environment, economy, and social well being of a nation’s citizens are becoming universally accepted as interrelated. The capital, unfortunately, is just the tip of the iceberg. From un-enforced logging regulations in the South to lacking social, health, and housing infrastructure in the North to widespread industrial soy production on most of the country’s fertile land, Argentina, as a nation has serious environmental problems to address.

Environmentalism has penetrated national, provincial, and municipal level politics, as well as culture. This blog will explore the country’s progress, when achieved, and challenges, when identified, towards sustainable development. I hope to give credit where credit is due to the agencies, corporations, small business owners, non-profits, and individuals who are propelling the environmental movement. I hope to expose those entities that could and should be doing more.

To start with, it is important for me to note that there are important historical reasons why Argentina is not currently a global leader of sustainable development. The country has a complicated and tumultuous past, including the relatively recent economic crisis of the early 2000s. I know, though cannot pretend to personally understand, that many Argentines have faced extremely difficult realities in their lifetime: loss of savings, of a home, of a job. I realize that environmental responsibility has not been high on the public, private, or personal agenda as it was replaced by other, perhaps more pressing needs. But to treat the environment as separate from financial, health care, or other public systems is a mistake. Environmental issues are not beside the point; corporate social responsibility is not ‘an extra.’   I blame no Argentine for the distance their country has to go towards integrating environmental management into mainstream politics, regulation, education, business, and culture.

But people must be held accountable for their nations. Why? Because Argentina belongs to Argentines. Its football legends, asado, tango, vibrant porteño culture – that is Argentina. Its shotty trash collection, serious contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, poor air quality, and nearly quarter of the population living below the poverty line…that is Argentina too.

Finding solutions to these problems is not that simple. Funds directed towards one program are diverted from another. If resource-extensive industries like mining, logging, and agriculture were severely limited, so too would be employment and the tax base that pays for public services.  It is my opinion that all too often environmentalists fail to recognize the economic and social implications of their recommendations. Even if a long term solution can be identified, its implementation may have seriously negative impacts in the short term. For instance, restricting industrial soy production would potentially save virgin forest from being razed to support cultivation, but it might also destroy the livelihood of those who depend on the crop for income. In other words, if respect for the environment was in everyone’s best interest all the time, we would not find ourselves facing the ecological challenges we are.

I hope my reporting inspires Argentines to both own their environmental successes and demand further action where it can be taken. I hope it humbles foreigners as to the challenges, competing forces, and complexities intrinsic in the development driving developing nations.