Our Story
Our Story
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To resist or not to resist
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...
Dispatch from the ground #9: Wallets from the workshop
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...
Dispatch from the ground #8: Cooperativa de Trabajo ’19 de diciembre’
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 cooperatives that choose...
Dispatch from the ground #7: The Co-operatives
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...
Dispatch from the Ground #6: We get schooled!
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...
art, fashion or tourist trophy?
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...