Buenos Aires Premieres New Recycling Plans

After previous failures in implementing recycling in the city, the government has officially launched a new plan for domestic recycling that is being put into practice since the beginning of June, right in time for the city mayor elections. Politics aside, we believe this plan has much more possibilities of surviving: while the previous (few) initiatives consisted in several containers of different colors for materials like glass, paper and metals, the new plan only asks neighbors to separate humid and dry waste (see the new containers in the picture). The first ones would go to the land refills and the dry would be translated to recovery centers where cartoneros -people who made a living out of cardboard recovery and sell since the 2001 crisis- would classify and derive them for reuse or recycling. In addition, just yesterday the government announced new containers for electronic devices. The first action was to place three containers in corners located in Roca Av. and Hipolito Yrigoyen, Roca and Chacabuco and Mayo Av. and Tacuarí, between 3 and 5 pm on fixed days. These are surrounded by promoters that give passers by information about recycling and will control what enters the container; since they will only be for computer parts, cell phones, phone accessories, and alarms, among others. Even though the initiatives are still limited, we are very happy to see this happening, since even for the person with best intentions, recycling was barely possible in Buenos Aires. Let’s hope this wakes up the environmental feeling in porteños once and for all. ::Buenos Aires Government Announcement ::La Nacion Article