Feature story - 25 November, 2005
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.
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.
Until now Buenos Aries has taken a common approach to waste,
repeatedthe 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. Butthis shortsighted approach ignores many looming
problems and sensiblesolutions to the issue of waste. The amounts
of waste are continuallygrowing while the space to dispose of it is
shrinking. A throw awayculture generates more waste every year and
there is no incentive forproducers 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 entailsre-designing products and changing the way
waste is handled, soproducts last longer, materials are recycled,
or, in the case oforganics, 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
areenvironmental. There is a new awareness of the dangers to human
healthof waste landfills and incinerators. Landfills are major
producers ofgreenhouse gases like methane, and they pollute water
tables.Incinerators produce greenhouse gases, and are a source of
pollutantslike 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 Zealandin signing up to
Zero Waste policies. Buenos Aries will start by reducethe use of
landfills, increase recycling, ban incineration and formallyemploy
people currently sorting waste in the street in to
organisedcollection schemes.
Buenos Aries is the first Latin American city to adopt Zero
Waste andwill hopefully act as a role model for other cities and
countries inthe region facing similar waste problems. We'll be
there to ensure thecity sticks to its commitments in the
future.
More info:
La Legislatura trata hoy la Ley de Basura
Cero
Basura
Cero
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