by cbaillie | Nov 19, 2010 | argentina
One thing I had not anticipated when Waste for Life started in Buenos Aires, was the whole complication with market. Not that it hadn’t occurred to us – we knew within a few weeks that our preferred position – that of creating a bartering system – cartoneros producing...
by | Nov 16, 2010 | argentina, design
Today was an exhilarating yet exhausting day of rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty. We had to test out the manufacturing process by which our premier product was made: the wallet (or billetera, pronounced beesh-eh-TERR-ah in Argentine Spanish) that...
by efeinblatt | Nov 12, 2010 | argentina, cooperatives, technology
It’s been almost exactly three years since we visited the recovered metallurgic factory, Cooperativa de Trabajo ’19 de diciembre’, and spoke with Enrique Iriarte about a possible niche side business: manufacturing hotpresses for the recycling...
by | Nov 12, 2010 | argentina, cartoneros, cooperatives
By Wednesday, day 10 of this visit to Buenos Aires, we were ready to visit the most important stake-holders of all: the cartonero co-operatives that will own and run the businesses that we are helping them start. Caroline and Eric had made contact with a community...
by | Nov 9, 2010 | argentina, design, partners
Back to the University of Buenos Aires yesterday for a follow-up visit with some second year students who designed and built products from chopped-up Danone yogurt containers. It was fun to chat with the students and see the look of pride on their faces as they...
by cbaillie | Nov 9, 2010 | argentina, cartoneros, cooperatives, design
Eric was determined that the better market would be the design/art clientele. I decided the local market in San Telmo was our thing. At 35 pesos average price in our survey at the market on Sunday I was satisfied and would need some serious convincing to look...
by | Nov 7, 2010 | argentina
Finally we have reached the last part of the value chain – we are ready to think about selling products! We know that *we* would buy what we were selling, but we knew we needed a realistic assessment of how many of the general public would feel the same. Though...
by | Nov 6, 2010 | technology
Yesterday we secured a key piece of technology – a ‘selladora’ (pronounced SESH-a-DOR-ah) or heat sealer, which will allow us to make the cardholders developed by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) locally. We originally wanted to find a...
by teach12 | Nov 4, 2010 | argentina, cartoneros, design, engineering, partners, technology
Despite the clear degradation of the streets since we were last here, this city feels like home to us. We are now welcomed with open arms. We are not even laughed at any more. It is known, accepted, and expected that we would be here. Even though we have been away for...
by | Nov 3, 2010 | argentina, cooperatives, partners
Our second full day in Buenos Aires meant a visit to another important partner – The Working World. They are a unique organization, based in Argentina for the last five years, supporting co-operative businesses through access to low-interest loans and business...
