Insights of the application of sustainability transitions theory in developing countries: the case for the (ongoing?) sustainable waste management transition in Tandil, Argentina

LUCIANO VILLALBA

Lausanne

Conferencia; 2nd PhDs in Transitions Conference 2017; 2017

EPFL

Wastemanagement represents one of the major sustainability challenges in developingcountries.  In the Buenos Aires Province,despite the dictation of advanced laws aiming at the decentralized implementationof the waste hierarchy and the eradication of open dumpsites, little or noprogress has been achieved in this direction from 2010, year of the validationof the new legislation.  In 2014, 77municipalities of the province had an open dumpsite as final destination oftheir waste ?many of them close to households or water courses-, for anestimated of 1 million tons of waste per year. Tandil, atouristic city situated at 340 km from Buenos Aires city, is one of the 9municipalities of the province owning a landfill for their waste. The presenceof the National University of the Buenos Aires Province (UNCPBA) and ofenvironmentalist NGO?s and associations worked as a catalyst for the correctdisposition of waste in the city from 1997, when the landfill was opened. In recentyears, recycling initiatives from different social institutions (i.e. TheChildren?s Hospital Foundation) aiming to finance their activities with thesale of collected materials, forced the opening of two municipal centers wherecitizens can take recycling materials that are later distributed to thisorganizations. More recently, between 2015 and 2016, with the Center ofEnvironmental Studies and Research (CINEA) from the UNCPBA we supported theformation of the first Cooperative of Urban Recyclers of Tandil (CRUT), which -inline with the many examples of the city of Buenos Aires with the ?cartoneros? -aimed at formalizing their work and improving their commercial benefits. The CRUTstarted receiving materials from one of the Municipal Centers but the situationtoday seems to be locked, with little or no activity of the CRUT and theannouncement of local government of installing a separation waste plant with amixed-waste collection system.Analyzing this process under the SustainabilityTransitions approach permits, in one hand, to identify possible ways of invigoratethe ?recycling niche? that can challenge the ?mixed-waste collection regime?,and in the other hand to identify some particular aspects that are locking thetransition and that can be associated to social, political and economicalcharacteristics of developing countries (DC), at least of Latin America. Wefound that, beyond usual political and economic instability of DC, othercharacteristics appear to be important: the role of Latin-American universitary?extension? as the natural platform for transition projects; the potential roleof the social economy in transitions in DC; the ?In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" effect,that is that in comparison with a large part of the Province the actual wastemanagement system (with near-zero recycling) is better; the ?sprawl city?effect that affects recycling costs and logistics; among others