Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BUENOS AIRES' CARTONEROS
You'll see them mostly at night, hunched over at the curb, picking through the garbage and pushing
loaded-down carts. These are not the homeless, or the crazy, or the drug-addicted, or even the city's
petty thieves. These are regular people, but some of Buenos Aires' poorest citizens - they're
cartoner-
os
(cardboard collectors). Many used to have regular jobs as skilled laborers or even businesspeople
but have been laid off with the 2001 crisis. With unemployment still substantial and no social security
to cover them, collecting recyclables is one way they can make a living.
It's estimated that around 20,000
cartoneros
rummage through Buenos Aires' trash heaps; some are
even accredited by the city and wear uniforms. They sort through the city's 5000 daily tons of waste,
collecting cardboard, paper, metal, plastic, glass - anything they can sell by the kilo to the
depositos
(recycling companies). They stake out their territory, perhaps about 15 city blocks, and are occasion-
ally forced to pay police bribes. Many have been pricked by syringes or cut by broken glass. This isn't
an easy job, but it's decent work - once established, the daily take-home pay for a
cartonero
can be
AR$100 or more.
While most
cartoneros
work independently, some work for neighborhood cooperatives that pay
them a regular wage and organize vaccinations. Some cooperatives even provide child care for parents
who go off on their nightly rounds. In the poorest families, however, even the young children have to
work all night long. And some
cartoneros
are in their 50s and 60s.
It's not surprising that Argentina's economic crash has inflamed this side-business in recyclables,
and that those less fortunate had to use their ingenuity to organize for themselves what their govern-
ment could not. The
cartoneros
are a reminder to us that there is another side to the glittering richness
of Buenos Aires' center, and that there is another part of this city where the poor people live.
