Read it and weep, consumers! Did you know that 5,000 tonnes of rubbish goes into landfills from Buenos Aires on a daily basis? And that Ceamse, the company responsible for urban waste management (which has a monopoly over rubbish collection) charges $66 per tonne of waste.

And for those of you who missed Cecilia Cartoceti’s excellent article on the new landfill in Zavaleta, there is more bad news: Law 9111, created by the military junta in 1978, states that 21 Buenos Aires’ municipalities must “exclusively” use the landfill system to dispose of their waste, thus eradicating any hope of recycling.

But it is the national government who is responsible for dictating the minimum standards for environmental protection. These should be abided by in the length and breadth of the country, while each province reserves the right to complement those standards.

In view of that, the national government sanctioned law 25,916 in 2004 to regulate household waste.

And, in 2006, Buenos Aires sanctioned the law 1.854, the so-called ‘Ley de Basura Cero’ (Zero Waste law). It establishes a gradual reduction in the disposal of solid waste through the adoption of a set of measures aimed at the reduction in waste generation, selective separation, recovery and recycling in the city. But this would obviously mean less money for Ceamse, who make a whopping $1.5bn a year cleaning the city.

So what can you do?

• Separate your rubbish for the cartoneros or take your rubbish to a recycling plant. Visit the excellent Donde Reciclo for a list of spaces close to you. It is a myth that if you put your trash out, it will be separated at the plant. In Buenos Aires the rubbish system has totally collapsed and anything not picked up by the cartoneros (and they only manage to collect 10% of all recyclables) will go straight into a landfill - or worse, an open-air dump.
• Stop using plastic bags! They are the most ridiculous waste of time, half the time they break and they are generally a plague in the city. The vast majority end up in landfills, where they take hundreds of years to decompose. While you are at it, you can leave unnecessary packaging behind too - 40% of the rubbish in landfills is packaging!
• Use returnable bottles. There really is no excuse in Argentina - beer, softdrinks, soda… it can all be found in reusable bottles. And as for water, get yourself a filter to stop buying all that bottled water!
• Make your own compost. It is really a lot easier than it sounds and stops all that horrible methane seeping out of the landfills. If all the organic waste is removed, we resolve that greenhouse gas issue, and you have some nice ‘black gold’ (no, not that kind) for your plants. Even if you only have a balcony, you can make compost. And it’s a myth that is smells - if you get your carbon (basically ‘wet’ materials - all kitchen scraps minus animal products and oils) and nitrogen (‘dry’ materials - leaves, paper, nut shells etc) balances right, it should not smell at all. The carbon part will smell, but use two small bins and fill the larger bin regularly. Visit Compostar for ideas on composters themselves, and this useful guide for how to compost. Down the line, I will write a more in-depth guide to this!
• Buy in large packages. A shampoo of 750ml vs one of 200ml means three containers saved. And as 40% of the rubbish in landfills is packaging… well, you get my point. And yes, I realise the 750ml bottle is bigger, but it is still at least two bottles saved from the bin! Which leads me to my next point…
• Use refills whenever possible. Think mayonnaise, shampoo - there is often a ‘soft’ container refill alternative (which is also often cheaper) which saves money and hard plastic heading to the landfill. With some products, you can even go and get your container refilled - like honey. There are many places to do this!