Compassion Direct UK

Cartoneras, the vital green work

of an underclass!

The Argentines have the most efficient recycling system in the world - Cartoneras whose lives depend upon recycling everything that they can find in the streets and bins of the middle classes.

Above - after school work.  Every night they trawl the streets and collect the waste from the shops in the centre of quilmes.  they make the most of their lives?

Right - useing an old supermarket trolly to recycle everything that he can find in the streets.

These are the men, women and young children who trawl the streets, rubbish bags and bins collecting cartons, paper, cardboard, plastic and glass, scrap metal and anything that might remotely be useful and therefore sold for the pittance they receive. 

Some of the materials collected by Cartoneras are used to make their homes, because these people are shanty dwellers, determined to make a little extra money for their families.

Many Cartoneras work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and can make as much as $160 Argentine Pesos a month— £28.

If they collect 100 kilos of plastic they will be able to sell this for enough to feed a family of four for one meal!

Above left: the shanty home of an Argentine Cartonera. 

We were told that most people in Argentina don’t really bother to recycle their waste as we do in the UK. If they did, they would put thousands of people out of work.