Who owns the waste?

The question of who owns the waste is a constant theme here in Buenos Aires. It is clear that the residents are made aware that they dont own it once its put in the street. The private/public organisations that run the trucks to collect the waste believe they own it, but their interest is not in helping the environment – they are paid to deliver to the landfill. Some of the workers break open the rubbish bags to relieve them of the recycling inside thereby adding many hours onto their roadside collections, but increasing their income by independently selling cardboard and bottles. The cartoneros who pick their way through the bags left on the pavements late at night, know they don’t own the waste, but the tendency to make something from the discarded bodies and belongings has apparently been around for 200 years since the ‘Ciruja’ – when animals bones were made into useful objects. Some groups have evidently made arrangements that we don’t fully understand, as they have access to the waste in whole districts without having to ‘waste-pick’. Some are legal and some not, this is clear. But who does own the detritus, who do I give it to when I throw it away? Ive given up the right, so who takes it? We have become so accustomed to idea that the Government will take it away and that we pay them to do that through our taxes, so its a dirty and necessary job. We believe that putting our bottles in a separate bin means we are saving the planet, not realizing that much of this waste will be sold to a developing country that has no recycling system of its own. Their own waste then goes into landfill. The self employed, self organised cartoneros are doing the city’s dirty work. They are amongst the few who are currently preventing the whole lot from going to the landfill. And they might earn a few pesos a day if they are lucky.