Science & Nature
Argentina’s Cartoneros Struggle to Keep Recycling, and Their Careers, Alive
by Britton Struthers-Lugo
This article is part of a reporting project from students at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism on stories from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Resilience and resourcefulness — those words can describe many city dwellers, including those here in Chicago.
They hold particularly true to a group of Argentina’s low-income population, who with a little creativity and a lot of hustle, are able to turn scraps into cash.
Stella Maris is a mother of 10 and grandmother of 60 and has been collecting recycling for nearly four decades.
Looking at items on the street, Maris sees the possibilities.
“This can be recycled,” she says. “The hangers can be recycled.”
They say one man’s trash is another’s treasure. This rings true for ‘los cartoneros,’ or the people who sort through waste to find recyclables to sell.
“The women who started this did it out of necessity, because the husband’s money was not enough,” Maris said. “The woman saw that ‘Oh yes, yes, by collecting cardboard I can make a difference to eat, why not do it?’”
Stella Maris is a proud cartonera. “There is nothing more beautiful than the street. I love it,” she said.
And she has reason to be proud.
Waste management engineer Matías Tarando says her work, and the work of others like Maris, is crucial.
“Without the cartonero, there wouldn’t be recycling in the city of Buenos Aires” Tarando said.
Maris is one of 150,000 waste pickers that are in charge of recycling in Argentina.
At the Saavedra Green Center, former cartonera, Jessica Espindola, explains the ways waste picking and recycling in Argentina have evolved.
“Here, the material arrives from the street workers, it is weighed on scales, the bags are turned over and the process of the whole plant begins,” Espindola said.
Hundreds of employees work at the center sorting recyclable materials so they can be turned into bales and sold.
At face value, recycling centers like this one seem to be thriving. However, behind the scenes, they are struggling to turn a profit.
Import taxes have been lowered in Argentina, which makes it cheaper to buy recyclables from other countries. This means that bales made in the green centers sell for less, or cannot be sold at all.
Maria Castillo represents the Argentine Federation of Cartoneros, Carreros and Recicladores. She says the price of cardboard has dropped by more than 50%. Recent economic hardship in Argentina has leaders in the recycling industry worried about the future of los cartoneros. The work has increased almost exponentially.
“Instead of walking 20 streets we’re going back to walking 100 streets. And instead of walking four hours, you walk six hours,” says Castillo. “It’s sad. For me, it’s very sad.”
Castillo also warns that these economic hardships may increase the social divide between the rich and the poor.
Cecelia, a woman we met on the streets of an upscale neighborhood, is not happy with the cartoneros.
“I don’t like those that are in the city,” she said. “Cartoneros, they cross in whatever way. They don’t respect any traffic rules or anything. The truth is, I don’t agree with it.”
Tarando, the waste management engineer, sees the divide.
“The great battle we have in Argentina is the cultural battle to teach people the importance of separating garbage,” he said.
Maris has felt the divide.
“When I started here in this community, I was discriminated against,” she said. “I was discriminated against because everyone was looking at the trash picker, ‘Here comes the trash picker.’ But that trash picker was bringing her children food to eat. So what the neighbor had to say, I wasn’t interested.”
To this day, Maris remains proud of the job that others look down on.
“I always tell my children the day you don’t have a job, grab a car and go out to collect cardboard,” she said.
Being a cartonera, Maris said, has changed her life for the better.
She hopes it will do the same for others in the future.
Mariana Percovich and Mercy Lugo-Struthers contributed translation support.
