The plot thickens

A meeting with the City Government office, specifically the research group of the Politicas de Reciclado Urbano, proved quite a remarkable surprise. From what we had heard both before and after our arrival, we imagined a meeting with some dusty, defensive bureaucrats who would avoid all controversies and present their picture of success with academic splendour. Not a bit. Here was a group of four young researchers who really seemed to care about what they were doing – not just for the environment, but for the people. We can’t say they represent the whole plan or the official view of the Government but they were a breath of fresh air. They were assigned to research the issues of waste in the city and told us much about the recycling centres, confirming the stories of the lack of success, non delivery of recycled materials and general confusion about where this waste does go. They also could tell us which reports had been written by whom and whether their studies on waste collection and recycling referred to both formal and informal sectors, domestic, street waste and other waste or just formal domestic. They estimated 11% of the city’s waste was currently recycled, and that most of this was currently carried out by the city’s 4000 cartoneros, along with El Ceibo as a major player. Five cooperatives have been singled out to run the recycling centres, as we had been told before, because they were the most organised. However, this was also the office which registered the singles and families. So long as they were older than 15 we were told there were no other restrictions, not what we had been told before. They were given gloves and a safety strip to wear over their clothing, and so long as they did not disobey two basic rules they could legally work in the streets. One was that when they ransacked the bags of rubbish they found there – that they would not leave the rubbish all over the street afterwards. And the other was that they would not stack up cardboard and plastic for their van to pick up later. These two are quite obviously not being obeyed by many groups as you see when you walk home at night, avoiding the spills of tomatoes that are strewn across the pavement. Furthermore, at many street corners on certain nights of the week you will find a large pile of sorted recycling materials. Maria, Antonella, Mariela and Felix were incredibly friendly, very concerned about the cartoneros and what might become of them after the forthcoming City Government changes. If was difficult to doubt the sincerity of this group. We discovered that Mariana was a radio DJ for the Bajo Flores radio station. She told us she had to do something to feel alive and she went there as often as she could. The plot thickens every day.