The head of the Buenos Aires government referred to the non-compliance with the work of the waste collectors. In an interview, Jorge Macri He stated: “I’m not going to pay them, I’m going to delay payment” and explained that collection companies prefer to pay fines rather than “do things well.”
In one example, the community leader detailed: “The truck has two operators: the driver and another. The one accompanying him has to go down with a shovel and a brush and leave the area around the container clean. That’s why there are two, otherwise one would be enough. The second goes to leave everything clean,” and he clarified in the streaming cycle. “The Pelado de La Casa”: “They don’t always do it.”
Finally, Macri highlighted that both he and around thirty government officials of the City of Buenos Aires, who do not belong to the hygiene area, control the waste collection operation by traveling the circuits at night. “We have been improving. I hope that next month, the neighbor will notice that difference,” he concluded.
The waste collection system in CABA is structured around a scheme of private concessions divided into zones, in which several urban hygiene companies operate under state supervision. The Buenos Aires administration segmented the territory into seven areas: six are in charge of private companies and one—corresponding to the south of the city—is managed directly by the Urban Hygiene Entity, a public organization.
Among the main concessionaire companies of the service are Cliba, linked to the Benito Roggio Environmental group, Solbayres, AESA Buenos Aires – local subsidiary of the French group Veolia -, and Urbaser Argentina, one of the largest global operators in the sector that, according to recent reports, began a process of selling its subsidiary in the country. Added to these is the participation of the Urban Hygiene Entity itself in zone 5, while the system is complemented by cooperatives of urban recyclers in charge of the differentiated collection of recyclables.
The model, which involves million-dollar contracts and represents a significant portion of the Buenos Aires budget, has been the subject of recurring questions both for its cost and its performance. In recent months, criticism has intensified due to a visible deterioration in urban cleanliness, with accumulation of waste in different neighborhoods. Newspaper reports noted “systematic failures” in the provision of the service, including the presence of garbage outside the containers, deficiencies in sweeping and supervision problems.
According to government sources cited in these reports, one of the main problems lies in the fact that each truck has an assistant who must go down to sweep up scattered debris and that is not always done. Added to this is the absence of cleaning at key times and the lack of morning sweeping of cordons and pans,” as well as deficits in the internal controls of the companies, whose supervisors should control 80% of the tasks carried out on the street.
The criticism comes not only from the administration but also from neighbors and specialists. In different neighborhoods, complaints were registered about container overflows, proliferation of rodents and health risks associated with the accumulation of garbage on public roads. This scenario is also part of a structural problem: the low level of recycling in the city, which is around 18%, well below international standards, which increases pressure on the traditional collection system.
In this context, the head of Government Jorge Macri was at the center of political questions. Opposition leaders and social actors attribute responsibility for the deterioration of public space, pointing out deficiencies in the planning and control of the concessionaires. Although the Executive sought to transfer part of the responsibility to the companies, tightening controls and pointing out contractual breaches, criticism points to the general management of the system.
The current picture thus shows a tension between the Buenos Aires government and the providing companies, in a context of growing citizen unrest. While the PRO administration tries to strengthen control mechanisms and attribute responsibilities to the concessionaires, political and social criticism points to a shared responsibility – but with an axis in the state leadership – for the persistent dirt in Buenos Aires public space.
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