CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In 1978, the Argentine military dictatorship establisheda centralized and regional waste management system in Greater Buenos Aires. Thedecree that created the system also banned ?waste picking?, leading themajority of waste pickers (cartoneros) to conceal their activity, as they movedfrom daylight work in the centre of the city to nocturnal work in theperiphery. In 2001, the Argentine economic crisis stretched unemployment topreviously unseen levels, reaching of 20%. As the dollar skyrocketed, so toodid the price of recyclables, leading many unemployed workers to scour the cityfor valuable materials. The number of cartoneros, and as well as the magnitudeof the phenomena, began to attract the attention of society and policy-makersand society at large.

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