by cbaillie | Sep 4, 2007 | argentina, cartoneros
Today we took the City Office up on their offer to ‘come up anytime the light is on’ and asked more questions of Mariela, who is truly becoming our heroine. She knows so much and cares even more. I was interested to hear that cartoneros were commonly...
by efeinblatt | Sep 3, 2007 | argentina, partners
Shortly after arriving in Buenos Aires two months ago we met up with Dante Munoz and Carlos Levinton. They have tutored us in the politics of waste and the re-purposing of waste (as well as ceviche and milongas), and we have met with them at least once a week in the...
by cbaillie | Sep 3, 2007 | argentina, cartoneros
We have now been here for two months and I have the feeling that we are no longer wading into waters but though thick mud. I sometimes have no idea how to move or where to go next. I think this is an important feeling and I need to understand better what it means....
by cbaillie | Aug 17, 2007 | argentina
INTI (Instituto Nacional de Technologia Industrial) , a federal Government institution here in Buenos Aires, has some very intriguing functions. I would have imagined that it might be able to help us identify the location of a hotpress or advise us on other technical...
by cbaillie | Aug 16, 2007 | argentina, cartoneros
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...
by efeinblatt | Aug 15, 2007 | argentina, cooperatives
We’ve been in BA for six weeks and during each of those weeks we’ve seen parked cars or pickups with large liquid-filled bottles on their hoods or roofs. At first it was just a curiosity, and we had fun trying to guess what was going on, but eventually the...
by cbaillie | Aug 15, 2007 | argentina, cartoneros, cooperatives
Last week disappeared very quickly in a kaleidoscope of visits to all manner of extraordinary places outside the city. The first visit was to La Vallol where went to visit a ‘Barrios de Pie’ home building project. Except there were no building materials and so no work...
by cbaillie | Aug 2, 2007 | argentina, cartoneros
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,...
by cbaillie | Aug 2, 2007 | argentina, cartoneros
Today we went to the Bajo Flores recycling centre in another very poor barrio. The collective here has developed a separation plant – the first of four planned in Buenos Aires, where the members buy waste, delivered to them in trucks (which sometimes arrive at...
by cbaillie | Jul 30, 2007 | argentina, cartoneros
Ok so I thought I knew how to use the ‘Guia’ – the incredible bus route map for the whole of the city. I was getting impatient and decided that we had to meet with some more cartoneros. We had contacts and I decided to call them up despite my horrible Spanish. After...
