Amid crisis, Buenos Aires starts recycling program

Albeit for some unfortunate reasons, recycling is making headway in Argentina’s capital. Amid the country’s brutal economic crisis, some 35,000 unemployed people now converge on Buenos Aires every day from outlying communities to collect discarded material they can sell for recycling. These so-called “cartoneros”—literally, cardboarders—enter the capital in such numbers and with such regularity that the railroad serving the capital operates a daily train for them from the poor suburb of José León Suárez. In response, the city government has unveiled a voluntary trash-separation program to aid recycling. It is distributing marked bags so residents can segregate paper and cardboard from the rest of their trash. The effort aims to help the city’s informal army of collectors work quickly and cleanly... [Log in to read more]

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