“ZERO GARBAGE” LAW IN OUR CITY (By Hostel Buenos Aires)

This week was presented the public campaign of awareness on recycling and processing of garbage. In a symbolic place as the Natural Reserve of our city (behind Puerto Madero docks), the event was supported by representatives of the Buenos Aires City government, environmentalist NGOs and members of the garbage collection companies. The project called “Green City” seeks to improve the urban public space.

The idea is to encourage people to separate the different types of waste materials at home or wherever their produced as the first link in a chain which will complete a modern collecting system and the subsequent treatment of the collected garbage. “Zero Garbage” is more than just a name, it’s a concept of sustainable urban life in which garbage is not something that has to disappear not caring about the social or environmental cost.

To recycle and to revalue the larger quantity of materials is the main objective. As well as promoting the manufacture of products designed to be reused in the long term. The first city in the world to apply this kind of legislation was Canberra in Australia, in 1995, with a clear goal: “no garbage for 2010”. The city of San Francisco, in the USA, also applied a Zero Garbage law in 1995 and managed to reduce in 50% its urban solid waste in 10 years. Now, it’s time for Buenos Aires to commit to that goal.

Besides the mentioned separation of different garbage types at home, the law contemplates the placing of trash containers to separate dry waste (recyclable) and damp waste (not recyclable) all across the city (so far it only cover 34% of it). The law also includes differentiated collection by the waste collecting companies, the construction of Green Centers to accumulate waste and the planning of educational and awareness-raising campaigns among the citizenship.