Rubbish in the streets of BsAs (Photo: Agus Carini)

In a press conference today, the director of Provincial Organisation for Sustainable Development (OPDS), Hugo Bilbao, and the minister of Public Space of Buenos Aires Diego Santilli stated that the city is making progress in its goal to reduce the amount of waste shipped to the landfill Norte III de la Ceamse. “The city met its March goal of 29%, that was previously established,” the statement said.

According to government officials, in the first 15 days of last month, 4,220 tonnes of waste was shipped out of Buenos Aires per day to landfills in the province — 29% less than the former rate of 6,000 tonnes per day. The improvement was down to new waste treatment plants that began operating in José León Suárez in January and Bajo Flores in March.

Using the 2004 baseline of 1,497,656 tonnes outlined in The Zero Waste law, the government aims to reduce the amount of waste shipped out of the city by 78% by June of 2014. It also says the city will prohibit the disposal of recyclable materials by 2020.

However, environmental group Greenpeace has warned that the city is using irresponsible methods to comply with the waste reduction program after years without taking action. Greenpeace criticised plans to burn garbage, saying: “the Buenos Aires government is considering using waste incineration facilities that were prohibited in the Zero Waste law as an alternative to reduce waste being sent out of Buenos Aires.”

“[Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio] Macri’s government must clarify what technologies are being used to achieve the 78% waste reduction by June 2014, making sure they comply with current legislation, which prohibits burning waste. It is critical that once and for all the conflict of waste is resolved within the confines of the law,” said Consuelo Bilbao, leader of Greenpeace.

Bilbao also advised that the government promote household separation of recycling and trash, saying it is the most efficient mechanism for reducing waste in the city.

Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli and city governor Mauricio Macri will meet today to reach agreements over the trash conflict in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. The problems on city waste management have been accumulating for more than three years, however, this is the first time both authorities will meet in person.

Scioli claimed, his “pacience has limits” and blamed the city government for not completing the ‘Zero Waste’ programme. He believes, the issue shall be solved with a “modern treatment plan” where the city reduces the quantity of trash sent to provincial landfills.

The recent conflict on city waste management, when waste disposal workers ran a massive strike for five consecutive days, was a last drop in the long-term issue between two jurisdictions.

At the same time garbage processing workers of the city demand either expansion of the landfill in the province of Buenos Aires, or waste reduction. Otherwise, the landfill might be collapsed by March 2013.

The waste disposal workers’ strike may have ended, but Buenos Aires’ streets remain choked with garbage, for which the city’s public prosecution has summoned the conflict’s key players for testimony. Celsa Ramírez, an attorney from the Northern Public Prosecutor’s Office, called a series of meetings with Buenos Aires Minister of the Environment and Public Space Diego Santilli, other directors in the PRO political party, waste collection companies, and representatives from the CEAMSE union. Starting on Monday, they will be required to explain their recent actions.

Regarding the union conflict’s resolution and waste collection services, “Actually, it is not clear what’s happening,” a judicial source linked with the investigation told Tiempo Argentino. “On the one hand, they tell us that the issue is resolved and that it’s such a matter of time before they finish collecting the trash, but on the other hand, information has come to us that they are not picking up the garbage because the union conflict persists.”

A spokesperson for CLIBA, in charge of waste disposal in the downtown and surrounding areas, told Telám that “We’re working fulltime, but we depend on the emptying of the trucks in the transfer plants of CEAMSE.” He added, “Because of the accumulation of so many days, the trucks arrive to the transfer plants full, where they form long unloading lines. This delays the work a lot” .For their part, CEAMSE attributes delays to traffic accidents en route to disposal sites. They deny taking any other actions to impede waste collection, saying that the conflict has been “overcome”.

The investigation is not poised to render immediate solution. Neither Ramírez nor judge Andrea D’anas, also working on the investigation, has the power to compel the Buenos Aires city government, waste collection companies, or unions to normalize the situation. Instead, “what is being sought is to determine the responsibilities surrounding this incident, independently of the conflict being resolved or not,” said General Public Prosecutor Martín Lapadú. The team will investigate possible violations of city laws that concern littering, interference with public services, and the soiling of public goods.

Piles of garbage remain strewn about the city more than five days after the beginning of the waste disposal workers’ strike and three after its supposed conclusion. Both Santilli and CEAMSE representatives say they expect the situation to normalize today. The CLIBA representative offered a more cautious estimate, owing to unloading delays. “We can’t be sure of the moment in which the trash will be totally picked up.”

The waste build-up poses sanitation concerns, for which Santilli chastised the union, saying it is “affecting the health of fourteen million people”. In an effort to avoid the proliferation of cockroaches, flies, and rodents and consequent public health risks, the Ministry of the Environment and Public Space executed disinfection and pest control operations in the areas with the greatest trash build-up.

The conflict is rooted in job security concerns for garbage processing workers, who demand the expansion of the Norte III landfill in the province of Buenos Aires, fearing its closure. Workers say that without waste reduction or expansion, the landfill will collapse by March of 2013.

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.

Maison Trash

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

A new sartorial trend has emerged in recent years, challenging the age-old assumption that high fashion is synonymous with consumer expendability.

Inspired by the LA phenomenon, ‘Trashion Couture’, visual artists Analia Zalazar and Mirtha Bermegui have given Argentine style a creative, ethical makeover. The metallic-shimmering, bejewelled creations that illuminate their Parque Patricios studio, are fashioned entirely from discarded fabrics, hand-sewn and uniquely styled.

Since their meeting in 2005, the creative duo’s quirky brand has continued to evolve in conjunction with their art careers. Zalazar’s medium is primarily collage, while Bermegui is currently involved in digital projects. “They’re different languages,” Zalazar explains, “but they feed off one another, in a constant to-ing and fro-ing.”

Originally intended to be a profitable venture, the garments have acquired a more experimental edge over the seasons, as collaboration continues to spark their creative juices.

“As we see it,” Bermegui says, “our designs are like pictorial compositions….works of art that happen to be portable.”

Despite their plastic art training, fashion runs deep in Zalazar’s and Bermegui’s blood. Both their mothers are couturiers and their art literally begins at home. Rummaging through their mothers’ treasure-chests of cut-off materials, salvaging discarded scraps and fabric ends, they collate and collage their own patchworked designs.

Merging trash with glamour, these chance ‘findings’ are converted into eccentric, often beautiful, occasionally fantastical creations. Lace-trimmed and adorned with colourful buttons and sequins, each creation is unique in form and design, as an antidote to the mass-produced consumer frenzy of the retail industry today.

“We’re seduced by form,” explains Zalazar. “We work with the shape of the material as we find it…it is this form that inspires us and motivates us to create. The form is spontaneous but we then replicate so that it becomes a series.”

They are certainly whimsical creations and, by the same token, Bermegui concedes, they are also “provocative statements that are not for everyone.” In their work, art, rather than the body, is the premise of design.

For the immediate future, their primary aim is to gain exposure and exhibit their work to a broader audience: which is where Ideame comes in. Having been asked to participate in Feria de Puro Diseño in June, Bermegui and Zalazar seek financial assistance so as to create a stand to exhibit their designs. The fair will serve as a “pilot test,” a platform from whim to establish themselves in the fashion world. If all goes to plan, the next step will be to open a boutique, the location of which is currently a matter of much discussion.

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.

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.