The city of Buenos Aires will contract 13 cooperatives to handle the collection and recycling of all of the capital’s dry wastes as of 2012. The new waste collection system will require households to sort and separate dry wastes – reusable materials such as paper and cardboard, plastic, glass, metal and fabric – from organic wastes, such as food scraps.

“What is important is that the city government is backing this decision with budget resources, because the wet waste collection companies are paid millions and we are marginalised, as if we weren’t a social enterprise,” waste collector Cristina Lescano told Tierramérica.

Lescano is a member of the El Ceibo cooperative, which collects waste from some 8,000 points around the city through an agreement with local residents.

Waste collection is one of the city’s most costly budget allocations, representing an expenditure of around 500 million dollars annually, of which 95 percent will go to the organic waste collection companies and the remainder to the cooperatives.