Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri of the Propuesta Republicana (PRO) and provincial Governor Daniel Scioli of the Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) joined together this morning in José León Suárez, in the province of Buenos Aires, to inaugurate a new rubbish treatment facility.

The Urban Solid Waste Treatment Plant III will be operated by approximately 140 employees of the Grupo Roggio, on three hectares of property belonging to the State Metropolitan Ecological Coordination Society (Ceamse). It is expected to treat about 1,000 tonnes of rubbish from the capital per day.

The treatment centre will separate paper, plastic, and glass from food and vegetal waste in an effort to reduce the quantity of rubbish destined for landfills. The city of Buenos Aires produces about 6,000 tonnes of rubbish every day, which is sent to the province for treatment or burial in landfills.

“We should all dedicate ourselves to a green city and country”, Macri said at a press conference held at the plant.

The opening of the plant is part of a larger effort, agreed upon by Macri and Scioli, to better manage and reduce the amount of city waste sent to the province by 78% over the next 18 months. The city and provincial leaders were obliged to discuss the issue at the start of December when the city failed to comply with the Zero Rubbish Law, put into place in 2007. The law called for a 50% reduction in waste sent to provincial landfills by 2012; the amount actually increased by 180% last year.

The new plan limits the amount of city waste sent to the province each day to 5.4 tonnes as of 1 January; 4.28 tonnes beginning in March; 4.15 tonnes as of July; 3.35 tonnes in November; and no more than 1.35 tonnes after June 2014.

Hugo Bilbao of the Provincial Body for Sustainable Development told Infobae “there needs to be a serious commitment to reducing waste. The step we’re taking today is very important.”

Plastic Bags (courtesy of Ambientate Argentina)

Buenos Aires is taking steps to get plastic shopping bags out of the city with a regulation that will slowly take the product away from store checkouts.

Following in the province of Buenos Aires’ footsteps, the regulation will implement a series of steps to gradually replace plastic bags. The first tier came into effect on 19th June, when people should have stopped receiving plastic bags from kiosks, pharmacies and deliveries.

From the beginning of August, supermarkets and convenience stores will have to provide biodegradable equivalents to plastic bags or incentives for people who bring their own bags.

The move is a step toward reducing waste in the city of Buenos Aires, which sends 6,000 tonnes of garbage to landfill each day. The issue of rubbish disposal has been a hot topic in the last few months, as the province of Buenos Aires, where the landfills are located, debates a bill that, if passed, will gradually decrease the amount of waste entering the province. From January 2014, no waste would be allowed to enter the province from another district.

Although the law in question – 3147 – was passed in 2009, the city just resolved to regulate it. In its 9th May official bulletin, the city announced the approval of the schedule that would remove plastic bags from checkouts.

Resolution 155/APRA/12 reads that the law “aims to promote the production of biodegradable bags” and “the gradual reduction and subsequent ban on non-biodegradable bag use by businesses.”

Greener Alternatives

The official bulletin also notes “that the plan should also consider the conversion of the biodegradable bag manufacturing sector, developing a schedule for the gradual replacement of non-biodegradable bags with biodegradable bags as well as awareness campaigns for the population.”

The only industries exempt from the law are those that require plastic bags for sanitary reasons, like meat and vegetable sellers and the hospital sector.

Exemptions will also be made for supermarkets and convenience stores that supply customers with new bags that are 55cm wide and 60cm high, 50% of which are green and 50% of which are black. The move is an attempt to get people to recognise the need to separate garbage into biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.

Stores who wish to use paper bags must follow other regulations as well, according to the city’s website.

“They must be made ​​with certified paper to ensure environmental sustainability in its production cycle,” it says, noting the paper must follow international certification systems, be made from alternatives like cane sugar or be made with least 80% recycled paper.

The plastic bag ban means the Argentine capital is joining a slew of cities around the world that are banning plastic bags, including Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Mumbai among many others.

Ecoexist is a company that makes eco-friendly bags in Argentina. “The ecological bags have many advantages,” Ecoexist member Sebastián Javelier says in a blog post, publicised on the company’s site, which notes the city’s new stance. “The main one is that the consumer is fully aware that an environmental problem exists, but doesn’t know quite what to do as an individual. These bags intuitively help to reduce garbage, one of the three most important problems of urban life, along with water care and disposal of batteries and electronic waste.”

The province of Buenos Aires moved to limit the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags in 2008, and gave stores a two-year period to adjust before enforcing the law.

To find out what locals think about the initiative, click here.

This week’s feature article investigates initiatives that are promising to generate green energy from rubbish. As one of the most visible problems on the streets of Buenos Aires, garbage is an issue generating a lot of debate.

The Indy took to the streets to ask porteños (and visiting Latin Americans) what they thought of the garbage situation in Buenos Aires and if they felt it could be resolved with greener garbage initiatives.

Portraits by Beatrice Murch

Gisele Teixeira, 42, Sao Paulo, Brazil

The garbage situation in Buenos Aires is very bad.  For me it is the problem of Buenos Aires. This is the fault of a lack of environmental education and initiative from the government. The collection of garbage needs to be more organised.

I don’t think making energy is the solution. They need to reduce the production of garbage, not to burn it, to make energy. The government needs to take action but it also has to come from the people, situation where both need to take action.

Rodrigo Martínez 46, Professor, Santiago, Chile 

The [rubbish] situation here can definitely be improved. I have seen many bags of garbage here, and garbage on the ground. It is not nice to look at, and it is bad for the environment. I haven’t seen any areas to recycle garbage. In Santiago, there are recycling bins, the garbage can all be separated.  Here people don’t have this idea, and what I’ve seen is a lot of garbage on the street because of this.

In Chile, they make natural gas out of the garbage, they put it in the ground, basically make a compost out of it. But in Chile, the garbage is separated already, and Santiago is a much smaller city. This has to be figured out first.

Gaston Baelo 25, Student, Cordoba

The garbage situation could be much better here. But it is a question of the people.  It takes a lot of money to resolve, to do everything, a lot of infrastructure. But simply it is a situation.

If we can recycle and separate everything, I think we can make energy from it. But this is a political situation. Really, the solution is to consume less and recycle the garbage.

Osvaldo Marzorati 70, Retired Lawyer, Buenos Aires

The only way for this situation to improve is to remove the people who are separating the garbage. There is no other way out.  All the cartoneros, they are making a mess of the city, leaving things open so the dogs destroy the bags and spread it everywhere.  The city is full of shit because of this.  This is a political issue, [the cartoneros] came at the darkest hour of the crisis here in order to get some sort of a job. They collect for others, they get a wage, they have to work every day- rain or not, cold or not, but in reality some, I don’t know who, is organising getting all the money.

You can make energy from it, sure, but the problem is the separation of the things. Why does it have to be done in the city? Remove everything out, and do it wherever the owners of the land have it. The garbage is opened up and classified, this classification should be done elsewhere, out of the city limits, or in a special place where this can be handled, not on every corner of the city. That’s why it is an unclean city.

Juliana Seranjeiola, 20, Student, La Plata 

I think that it is a situation that will take a lot of people to change. The government says they can make energy, change the situation, but they don’t do it.

This is the most logical solution: take the garbage, use it to make energy, it’s the most natural for everyone. It is definitely possible to do this – yes it is possible. But how much does it cost? It takes a lot of people working together.

A pre-dug CRA pipe that will eventually be covered with garbage as it piles higher. This will enable the company to suck out the methane gas produced by the garbage. (Photo: Grace Protopapas)

It is the same story over and over again: landfills are bad, they are dirty, they are noisy, and the smell could knock out even a skunk. With almost 15,000 tonnes of waste sent to landfills every day from the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, it is not unfair to say that landfills are the pit of society. But while they are most definitely smelly and unattractive, what most people do not know is that they are also green, and getting greener.

“We are working very hard to manage the garbage,” says Marcelo Vechiati, the engineer in charge of CRA operations at the Ensenada landfill. “It’s easy to complain but when people come here and see the landfill, it changes their opinion.”

Vechiati works for Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (CRA) at the Ensenada landfill just outside of La Plata. The landfill receives 700 tonnes of garbage a day from both La Plata and the surrounding area.

Owned by the State Society for Ecological Co-ordination of the Metropolitan Area (CEAMSE), Ensenada is a very advanced landfill with not only proper treatment of the garbage itself but also the green technology of flaring methane gas into CO₂.

Flaring, as the process is called, is a popular way of dealing with the very toxic methane gas that is constantly leaking from landfills. Numerous sites across Argentina have built flares.

Besides flaring, there is also the even greener option of using the gas for creating energy and finally, the greenest of all, is the new technology of separating, drying, and burning the garbage to create fuel. However, the process of burning garbage remains very controversial.

Flaring Methane Gas

Flaring is the environmentally-conscious process of transforming the toxic methane gas that is constantly leaking out of landfills, into carbon dioxide (CO₂). Although still not good for the environment, in terms of its global warming potential, CO₂ is 21 times less potent than methane.

“Methane is more potent than CO₂,” says the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “When these emissions are compared on an equivalent scale, which is referred to as greenhouse gas equivalents, methane contributes more to global warming.”  The EPA has done numerous studies looking at the flaring of garbage.

Vechiati explains that the projects at Ensenada and González Catán are compliant with the Kyoto Protocol. Although the protocol seems to have slipped into that awkward zone of accepted failure, and no one really wants to talk about it, some companies are still trying to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

“CEAMSE wanted to do something related to the environment and they saw the potential of the bio-gas generated by the landfill,” says Vechiati. “So in 2005 they opened a tender to get different proposals to do something with the biogas; CRA won the tender and became a partner of CEAMSE.”

A meter shows how much gas passes through the flare each hour. (Photo: Grace Protopapas)

Canadian company CRA organised the technology to be built at both CEAMSE’s Ensenada and González Catán landfill sites. Now the flaring process is burning more than 3,000 cubic metres of gas per hour.

The methane gas is sucked up from the modules, the hills filled with garbage, through vertical wells that are 16-18 metres deep. The wells pull the methane gas up into a giant tube, which transports the gas all the way across the landfill onto the flaring site.

The gas arrives at the flaring site through a well that is deep under ground in order to naturally drain as much moisture as possible. It is then sent to a moisture filter to get rid of any that made it past the draining system, as the gas must be very dry.

The gas then travels through another tube, which blasts it into the flare. Tubes at the bottom of the 12-metre tall flare release propane which reacts with the methane and oxygen in a combustion process that changes the molecules and creates CO₂. The CO₂ is then released into the atmosphere.

The flare at Ensenada is currently not at full capacity due to construction issues. But Vechiati hopes it will be back to burning close to 6,000 cubic metres of gas per hour in a few months.

Across Argentina numerous landfills have employed flaring, including the landfills in Villa Domínico and Olavarria in Buenos Aires, Salta, Puente Gallego in Rosario, AESA in Misiones, and Las Heras in Mendoza. However, regulations set down by the Kyoto protocol are not internationally binding or imposed by the Argentine government. Whether or not to do something about the environment is up to the owner of the landfill.

Also, although it is a friendlier gas, CO₂ emissions are a big problem in Argentina. According to World Bank data from 2008, the average Argentine created five cubic metres of CO2 per year, which was almost double the amount of the rest of Latin America combined, which comes in at 2.8 cubic metres per capita. The amount of CO₂ emissions has been on the rise in Argentina, spiking from 4.1 to 4.8 cubic metres in just three years. Latin America’s is also rising but has only gone up 0.3 cubic metres in the same amount of time.

Over at Norte III, CEAMSE’s other landfill, three different companies are working on flaring. They are also using the even cleaner technology of energy generation from methane.

From Gas to Energy 

Energy generation is similar to the flaring of methane gas in that it is using the naturally emitted gas from garbage in landfills for an environmentally-friendly purpose.

A pipe takes the methane from the landfill to the flare site. (Photo: Grace Protopapas)

At Norte III, Multi Ambiente is the company in charge of turning the gas into energy. Norte III, just outside the city in San Martín, is by far the largest of CEAMSE’s sites with around 15,000 tonnes of garbage coming in everyday from the city of Buenos Aires alone, as well as receiving garbage from numerous other cities.

“With the large economic global crisis, and the reduction in the CER [Certified Emissions Reactions] prices, we are rethinking and focusing on energy generation,” says Leonardo Maseiras, the sub-manager of operations at CEAMSE. “This is why we have running in Norte III a 5MW/h plant and are constructing one that will create 10 MW/h.”

CERs are what CRA and CEAMSE are being paid to create. When they change the methane gas into CO₂ they have made a CER, which they then sell to make a profit. However, with the global economic crisis the price for CERs has plummeted, making the expense to create them more than they are worth. Turning to energy generation not only guarantees a profit but is also better for the environment. Various other landfills sites across Argentina are also looking into energy generation instead of flaring.

The use of methane to create energy is a similar process to the flaring of methane. The gas is collected in tubes that are drilled vertically into the modules. With giant vacuums it is sucked out of the hill and carried through tubes to the energy conversion site.

There the gas turns massive turbines that create energy. That energy is then collected and transferred to state-owned energy company Enarsa.

“All the power lines in Argentina are connected,” says the president of Insaap Miguel Suarez, “All the lines are owned by Enarsa. This is a national government agency. It doesn’t matter where you are in Argentina, you are getting the same energy.”

Insaap is the company in charge of contracting the green projects at CEAMSE’s landfills. They controlled the actual building of the flare at Ensenada. They are also looking into waste-to-energy technology that incinerates the garbage itself.

The Tyrannosaurus

Enter the Tyrannosaurus. Although not literally a giant scaly dinosaur, the machine in question has the power to do some serious damage; to garbage that is.

Developed in Finland by BMH Technology, the Tyrannosaurus is the name of the actual machine that shreds the garbage. The shredder is part of a massive assembly line that takes municipal solid waste (MSW) and turns it into solid recovered fuel (SRF) which can then be burned to create energy.

Through various filters and magnets all liquid waste, metals, and organic waste are pulled out of the MSW for compost and recycling. The garbage left is then dried and sent through the Tyrannosaurus, which shreds what is left making SRF.

“The idea of the project is to generate fuel with garbage. It separates the inorganic and organic parts and uses the combustible part to make fuel,” says Suarez.

The end product is “highly-calorific fluff” that is ideal for burning to create energy, either mixed with traditional solid fuels like wood, peat and coal or used alone. Emissions of greenhouse gases are seriously minimised due to the high-temperature burning of the SRFs. This option makes garbage burning one of the most environmentally friendly ways of dealing with a city’s waste.

“This is something CEAMSE would like to do in Norte III but we are only just studying it, it is extremely expensive,” says Suarez.

Besides Norte III the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) is also looking into something similar for the province of Mendoza’s landfills. They plan on constructing a prototype, which will burn 10 tonnes of garbage a day. The price tag for the prototype has been budgeted at $30 million.

The Province of San Juan is also trying to be the first province to burn garbage by participating in a competition held by the National Ministry of Science and Technology. If their project is picked, a $36 million power plant that is fuelled by waste will be built.

The Politics

Part of the problem with developing green technology at landfills in Argentina is the unknown life expectancy of a site. In order to get funding for flaring, energy conversion, and shredding for incineration projects like the Tyrannosaurus, they need long-term proposals. But like many other things in Argentina, the landfill sites are often subject to political tug of war.

The other problem is the huge controversy surrounding what is essentially the burning of garbage.

The Citizens Coalition Against Incineration was formed in 1995 to protest the original plan to simply burn the garbage with no sorting whatsoever.

The flare tower burns the carbon-dioxide which while still polluting is 21 times less dangerous for the environment than burning methane. (Photo: Grace Protopapas)

“The incineration of waste creates new environmental and health problems, discourages the minimisation of waste generation, and is incompatible with programs for recovery, recycling, and composting,” writes the coalition on their website.

Although many people still balk at the idea of burning garbage today, BMH claims that the burning of SRF is much more environmentally friendly. The gas created from the burning can be used to turn massive turbines creating energy. When the entire process is complete the only thing left is organic waste for compost, metals that can be melted down and reused, and energy from the burning of the SRF. All of this is done with fewer greenhouse gases escaping.

For now, landfills in Argentina are focusing on what they can do: flaring methane gas to create CO₂ and converting methane into energy. Despite being covered in plastics, left over food, and shiny metals, they are getting greener.

“People don’t like the idea of landfills but even if you know nothing about the environment you can see that we are environmental cleaners, not environmental polluters,” says Vechiati. “After all, where else are you going to put the garbage?”

Do Argentines think these initiatives will help solve the rubbish problem? Click here to find out.

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

Overflowing garbage and recycled garbage waits for collection (Photo: Sam Verhaert)

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.”

Barrio 17 Noviembre is a waste-land. (Photo: Olmo Calvo Rodríguez)

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.

Cliba Dump Truck (Photo: Ian McIntosh)

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.

Recycling collection bins in Recoleta. (Photo: Leonardo-DM)

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.

Dismantling E-Waste in a warehouse. (Photo courtesy of Escrap)

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”.  

An enormous amount of battery waste is generated. (Photo courtesy of Greenpeace by Martin Katz)

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.

Gustavo Fernández Protomastro, the director of Escrap at a waste site (Photo courtesy of Escrap)

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.

Like most developing countries, Argentina is becoming more of a consumer of electronic waste, and what to do with these products when they end their natural life cycle is a growing burden. The vast majority is currently left in landfills or on rubbish dumps, taking hundreds of years to decompose and releasing heaving metals and harmful toxins, which are dangerous to public health. However, there are upcoming discussions in government to sign a law to ensure that the producers are responsible for the safe disposal of their products and to generally regulate the safe management of waste electronic equipment. The Indy hit the streets to ask the public Buenos Aires what they thought about this pertinent subject.

Cesar Benites, 38, Quilmes, works in the restaurant industry

The government should encourage people to recycle more especially as nowadays electronic items are very popular. I try and sell my electronic waste as it can make useful items. Everyone needs to play their role though and not just leave it on the street. I am aware of the dangers that the contamination of electronic waste landfills can cause and it is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed by the government.

Clara Canchi, 21, Villa Crespo, student

We just put all of our rubbish on the street as there aren’t that many options to recycle. There is a place in Villa Crespo where we take our old electronic goods and they recycle them and use the materials inside them to make other things. Maybe the government should encourage more people to recycle these things so that we are more aware.

Saravia Gianella, 35, Moreno, housewife

I am from Peru originally and it is much the same as here, we just put our rubbish onto the streets. We do try and recycle some things like clothes but I wouldn’t know where to go to recycle electronic goods. I do know that the waste is dangerous though, especially in the form of water contamination.

 
Luis Queros, 55, Palermo, chef

I do recycle old electronic goods such as computers and they go to worthwhile places such as hospitals and schools. Most people are too lazy to care though and throw out old phones and other electronic goods onto the street. I think it is terrible, people need to start to care more and instead of leaving everything in the landfill site, we should recycle things more so it is less polluting for the environment.

Jamie Eidman, 70, Palermo, works in an electronic store

Yes, of course it is such a bad thing that we don’t think and our society creates so much damaging electronic waste. Not just in Argentina but everywhere especially in US. We should put all of the electronic waste in the sea and cover it with cement, that way we would not have any contamination. I am old but this will be a big issue for young people and the government should address the issue as soon as possible.

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!

Refuse workers in Buenos Aires are on strike after the death of one of their colleagues, Gustavo González. After suffering a stroke, González was reportedly left unattended at a hospital he had visited due to his medical scheme. His family are attributing the treatment he suffered directly to his death.

González’ sister Estela said that “nobody had taken responsibility” for the patient in his move from a hospital to a more specialist clinic. She also criticised the authorities in their treatment of the family. They had “called and called the union and medical insurance, but were cut off and even insulted”.

Gonázlez was treated last Friday at Hospital Mercante José C. Paz. Later that day he was then taken to a clinic at Laferrere. It was here that he died whilst under operation.

Barricades and fires have been put in place on the intersection between Figueroa Alcorta and Sarmiento in Palermo, causing heavy disruption to traffic. From this morning, refuse has also been left uncollected on the streets of various neighbourhoods.

The workers are protesting because of deemed inefficiencies in their medical schemes that are provided by the worker unions.

The wife of the rubbish collector has warned that the protestors will remain in place until Hugo Moyano, the boss of the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), the workers union, appears at the scene of the protests.

Moyano earlier affirmed that he has begun a ‘good investigation to collect all of all of the answers that will be necessary’ about the circumstances which led to the death of the 33-year-old worker.

Mayor of Buenos Aires Mauricio Macri, described the claims of the protesters as “legitimate”. He went on to criticise their strike, condemning their actions as “punishing the majority of the population for the actions of a few” in an interview with Radio Mitre.