Recycling - How Is It Supposed To Work?

[pmacay]

I saw a message sign in the subway about wanting to cut the amount of garbage thrown away by 1/2 by recycling. There was some notice by the administration about recycling in our building, (it's a good sized building with 34 apartments), about putting glass, plastic and paper in black plastic bags for recycling, but if I put those out with our garbage, I think our portero is just throwing it out with the regular trash. For a short time we had recycle dumpsters in the street next to the regular dumpster and I was throwing my empty wine and gin bottles in there, but they took those away several months ago.

Does anyone know how the city mandated recycling program is supposed to work? I'd be happy to drop off my stuff if there was a local place to do it in my neighborhood.

Thanks!

Pete & Ron

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I saw a message sign in the subway about wanting to cut the amount of garbage thrown away by 1/2 by recycling. There was some notice by the administration about recycling in our building, (it's a good sized building with 34 apartments), about putting glass, plastic and paper in black plastic bags for recycling, but if I put those out with our garbage, I think our portero is just throwing it out with the regular trash. For a short time we had recycle dumpsters in the street next to the regular dumpster and I was throwing my empty wine and gin bottles in there, but they took those away several months ago.

Does anyone know how the city mandated recycling program is supposed to work? I'd be happy to drop off my stuff if there was a local place to do it in my neighborhood.

Thanks!

Pete & Ron

The default option is to throw it on the sidewalk for the cartoneros to pick and choose what they want.

 

[irina]

I was meaning to ask this too, if anyone had seen any of the recycling dumpsters anywhere. They all disappeared from our area (Saavedra) a few months ago and we've just been driving around with a trunk full of recyclables that we're about to give up and just throw in the trash. I mean, I guess the ones in the recycle bins were probably ending up in the normal trash but I liked to try and hope for the best...

 

[Montauk_Project]

here recycling means making it easier for carteneros to find--even the city gov´t ads say this, and they are the ones who pick it up.
so by putting it in separate bags it means they won´t have to go through your "gross" trash to find it.
you could complain to the city about lack of containers and see if they get you the container back. Good luck with that!

 

[pmacay]

Thanks for the replies, I just thought there was an "official" policy that was started about recycling, of course I know the cartoneros go through and collect what they can, but the notice we received actually said you can be fined for not recycling. I just wondered if it was more organized by the city, but I guess it's not.

 

[internationalguy]

Don't you think those people would go through the trash anyway even if everyone recycled? Old habits don't go away and they will always wonder if they will hit a "jackpot" in the regular trash.

 

[PhilipDT]

In nuñez we were part of the pilot program for the bins. At first they had trash bins and recycling bins. Then they noticed that nobody cared what bin it was and just filled all of them with trash and if it ever did get filled with recycling, the cartoneros just took the whole fucking bin with them.

So thats what led to the big unmovable bins with smaller holes that you see in the center. Those were going to be emptied by the cartoneros. The main problem is that other non authorized cartoneros have been breaking into them.

 

[PhilipDT]

Don't you think those people would go through the trash anyway even if everyone recycled? Old habits don't go away and they will always wonder if they will hit a "jackpot" in the regular trash.

No, they're not looking for 'jackpots' they're looking for quantities of recyclables which are not worth very much at all individually. If suddenly the majority of the recyclables were being collected by a service or other cartoneros, and the same full day of back breaking work earned them 10-30% of what they get now, I don't think they'd keep doing it.

Plus I'm sure that once the system starts taking off, Macri will probably start putting fines on tearing open garbage bags and strewing trash across the streets.

 

[jantango]

http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/ciudadverde

This site and billboards around the city ask residents to take TWO SECONDS and separate their garbage. The huge extravaganza in Palermo on Friday afternoon with Violeta was held to promote the ciudad verde program to children.

For more than a year, special brown and green bags are being sold at grocery stores to encourage garbage separation. It's mandatory in so many countries, but a new project for this city. It's not easy educating portenos to change their old habits. The new bags are biodegradable. Brown is for food waste, green for recyclables.

My neighborhood doesn't have any type of containers as yet, but I still separate my garbage and save it until the bags are full. When a cartonero comes along in the afternoon, I ask him to wait for me to haul out a large bag of recyclable materials.

Portenos think the garbage disappears as soon as they take it to the street. What they don't realize is that the city is running out of space for it (see the video). It can be cut in half by separating glass, etc. from food waste. Many still use plastic bags, not the recyclable ones. They leave caps on plastic bottles and don't take three seconds to crush them.

http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/ciudadverde/separacion
why do it? How? Where to deposit recyclables?

For residents of Palermo - http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/ciudadverde/separacion/donde/embajador-ambiental
They're asking people to become an environmental ambassador for their building by helping to separate materials. Palermo is the largest neighborhood in the capital, and therefore, the one that generates the most garbage. All those highrise buildings need a plan.

 

[Davidglen77]

Just separate it yourself. Put any recyclable material in one bag - cans, bottles, plastic containers and bottles, paper, etc. and non-recyclable garbage such as food scraps in another. Then the cartoneros can just take the stuff away without having to make such a mess and bust open so many bags. It's really not that hard to do. I am not a fan of people having to sift through garbage to make a living, but that is how it works here and I don't see it changing anytime soon.