Trash Pickers in Buenos Aires

The Organization of Cartoneros in Buenos Aires
In Argentina, they are called “cartoneros,” but in New Delhi they go by “ragpickers”, in Egypt “zabbaleen”, in the Philippians “boyte dyario.” While their names vary, everywhere their work has the same scope: to make a living off of the trash of others. These people take advantage of the recycling industry that neither the government nor the population in general do. They collect paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum and any other product that there happens to be a market for and sell them to intermediaries.

In Argentina, this phenomenon in the informal recycling sector grew monumentally after the 2001 economic crisis when the percentage of people without work took off overnight. There had been very little formal system of recycling throughout Argentina, so there was a large hole in the system waiting to be filled. Before Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis Cartoneros existed, but only an uneven scattering. But overnight, through the 2001 economic crisis the number grew to at least 40,000 cartoneros, and with such scale they began to organize in massive numbers. (Argentina’s 2001 crisis crippled its economy and caused a significant lowering in the value of Argentina’s peso, the quality of life, and employment in the county.)

Cooperatives where members share storage space and other benefits have appeared quickly throughout the cities of Argentina, including that of Pepe Cordoba. The shared storage space seems small but is an alternative much healthier for the cartoneros who often store the contaminated wastes in their own homes. Also in other respects cartoneros have become politically active and have had successes in gaining more rights. In December of 2002, the legislature of Buenos Aires revoked a law that made the informal collection of recyclables on the street illegal, a law that before caused many confrontations between these marginalized people trying to support themselves and their families and the local authorities. While in the past their work was quite unsafe, working during dangerous hours of the night and dealing with confrontations with authorities, now they are protected by authorities, a big change. Their activism with both the law and public opinion have changed the mentality of the population so that now their work is more accepted as a legitimate means to make a living. Growth in their organization has created growth in public acceptance, and growth in public acceptance has resulted in public organization to further the cause of the cartoneros: campaigns to encourage people to pre-separate their trash have emerged as well as soup kitchens and vaccination programs organized by church groups and neighborhood groups.

One exemplar cooperative of trash collectors in Juarez City in Mexico multiplied the salaries of its members by ten times, bettered their health insurance, and began a school for their children. On a very small scale, Cordoba’s cooperative has made itself an example for other cooperatives in Argentina and, like the cooperative in Juarez City, has gained more power with numbers. Intermediaries pay individuals much less than they pay companies that deal with a much larger volume of recycling, so Cordoba is able to use the collective wealth of recycling from the individuals in his cooperative to gain a better price from those intermediaries. Also, he has organized within the cooperative: they have supplied uniforms for their members, organized the women with jobs in the warehouse, and purchased a truck. A yet larger number of cooperatives are more similar to the one of another cartonero, Francisco Monzon: smaller, with possibly only 30 members, and seeking simply a little more power with the primary goal to obtain better prices.

Some Argentine cooperatives have considerably helped their members, but still they are young (after all, many only began with the growth in unemployment and thus informal trash collection after the crisis in 2001) and still need to develop. There are many challenges to face before replicating the success in Juarez City, with the little success seen by Cordoba not widespread. In Buenos Aires, there are around ten known cooperatives of size, but still the majority of Cartoneros work for themselves or without organization larger than that of their own immediate family.

In 2005, Buenos Aires approved a Zero Waste Law to considerably reduce the quantity of what is thrown away as waste. To arrive at the law’s goals, the plan is to open sites to manage the wastes and include cartoneros and their knowledge in the process. This would reduce the overall waste produced and create formal employment for Argentina’s cities’ informal trash collectors. This plan recognizes that the cartoneros arrived before this law and were doing a pretty good job to boot—they collected an estimated 66 tons per day of waste cardboard and paper products in Buenos Aires alone—and its hope is to avoid any inadvertent negative affects on the cartoneros, who will operate the waste sites. On May 1, 2008 the first of the many planned sited opened on small scale to practice and work out the details before expanding to a larger scale and building more plants.

The Zero Waste Law was a step in the right direction, but unfortunately all of the changes are slow. The government is not taking many steps toward enforcement and in reality, is not even really following the law. In 2007, various NGOs had to work to stop an attempt by the government to open a garbage incineration plant, an act prohibited by the Zero Waste Law. Also, many of the idealistic goals of the government are slow to begin. Still, however, there are many reasons to be optimistic. Considering the progress of the cartoneros already in cities in Argentina, most within only one decade, there is reason to hope for a great deal more. In all cases, however, the changes will not emerge from one side alone: they will result from a joint effort by the government, the cartoneros themselves and the support and actions of people at all other levels of Argentine society.

Biocycle. Zero Waste Law. http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/001659.html . 2008.
Goldberg, Jonathan. The American Prospect. ‘One Man´s Trash’. http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=one_mans_trash . January 21, 2003.
Valente, Marcela. IPS. Argentina: Transforming Garbage into Decent Jobs. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33248 . 16 Mayo 1006.