Zero waste victory in Argentina

25 November 2005

Action to clean up a public park in Buenos Aries to promote recycling and a city policy of Zero Waste. Later the city council voted to adopt a Zero Waste policy.

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Buenos Aires, Argentina — After a campaign by Greenpeace in Argentina, the city of Buenos Aires has decided to tackle the thousands of tonnes of rubbish dumped in city landfills everyday. The city council has voted to move towards a policy of zero waste to tackle its wasteful habits.

Until now Buenos Aries has taken a common approach to waste, repeated the world over. Collect it and throw it in a big hole in the ground. That's 4-5000 tonnes of waste every day. Out of sight out of mind. But this shortsighted approach ignores many looming problems and sensible solutions to the issue of waste. The amounts of waste are continually growing while the space to dispose of it is shrinking. A throw away culture generates more waste every year and there is no incentive for producers and consumers to reduce the amount of waste.

Only a drastic approach can tackle the mountains of waste being generated. Zero Waste is a radical approach to this problem. What might at first seems impossible is actually already being successfully implemented.

Zero Waste is a new concept being pioneered by leading corporations, municipalities, and now provincial and national governments. It entails re-designing products and changing the way waste is handled, so products last longer, materials are recycled, or, in the case of organics, composted. Waste can be designed out of the product cycle. Throwing away valuable material that can be reused is truly wasteful.

The immediate imperatives behind the drive for Zero Waste are environmental. There is a new awareness of the dangers to human health of waste landfills and incinerators. Landfills are major producers of greenhouse gases like methane, and they pollute water tables. Incinerators produce greenhouse gases, and are a source of pollutants like heavy metals. Zero Waste strikes at the cause of this pollution.

Buenos Aries joins cities like Canberra and Toronto, states like California and even countries like New Zealand in signing up to Zero Waste policies. Buenos Aries will start by reduce the use of landfills, increase recycling, ban incineration and formally employ people currently sorting waste in the street in to organised collection schemes.

Buenos Aries is the first Latin American city to adopt Zero Waste and will hopefully act as a role model for other cities and countries in the region facing similar waste problems. We'll be there to ensure the city sticks to its commitments in the future.