| "Los Cartoneros" is a term that was originally coined in | | | | first became interested in the busy recycling depot as |
| Argentina shortly after the country's 2001 Economic | | | | a great spectacle, and then over time, came to |
| crisis. The term refers to a group of people who, upon | | | | appreciate the scene as an example of some of San |
| losing their jobs, took to pillaging the streets of Buenos | | | | Francisco's most resourceful residents and their |
| Aires (and its neighboring towns) collecting and sorting | | | | little-known involvement in the city's recycling program. |
| the city's recyclable materials (especially paper and | | | | Now that I am aware of the city's "cartoneros," though, |
| cardboard) in hopes of selling their findings to one of | | | | some questions have arisen. How does the city view |
| the local recycling depositories. A desperate gesture | | | | the presence of these people? In Argentina, the |
| that eventually became a multimillion-dollar industry. | | | | cartoneros have battled with their own governments |
| These Argentineans and their successful usurping of | | | | over the rights to public recycling programs, and have |
| what had otherwise been jobs reserved for city | | | | had trouble organizing so as to ensure fair wages, |
| officials were made internationally known with Ernesto | | | | security, etc. Mandates and restrictions have been |
| Livon-Grosman's documentary Cartoneros. | | | | placed upon them, preventing them from controlling |
| While Argentina is perhaps the best-known version of | | | | their own enterprise. Are the cardboard collectors of |
| this recycling subculture, it is, in fact, representative of | | | | San Francisco trying to organize and vie for legal |
| an informal industry that has taken root in many of the | | | | authority over the city's recycling program? Are they |
| world's major cities. One of the most public examples | | | | receiving fair reward for their bounty? How much is |
| of this industry is in San Francisco. Day and night, one | | | | cardboard worth? |
| can watch the city's many pick-up trucks custom fitted | | | | With the rising prices of gasoline, a stricter national |
| with extensions piled high with neatly stacked loads of | | | | immigration policy, and a general slump in the American |
| cardboard traversing the streets, scanning for their | | | | economy, it can be assumed that life for the |
| share of this often overlooked resource. These trucks | | | | cartoneros is not easy, but perhaps if they could find |
| can sometimes harvest three or four tightly packed | | | | support in organizing their industry and making a |
| truckloads and make up to 150 dollars per day, | | | | proposal to take control over the city's cardboard |
| according to an employee at the Jerrold Street | | | | recycling, they could, in doing so, both help to save |
| Recycling Depot. | | | | municipal money as well as provide much needed jobs |
| As a resident of Jerrold Street and an avid recycler, I | | | | for many of the city's disenfranchised residents. |