By Elvira Osorio Seco |
Santiago de Chile (EFE) 0.8% of the waste it generates.
Several trucks go through the streets of this commune of almost 200,000 residents every morning in search of their organic waste, which they have previously separated in their homes and which represents more than 50% of all the garbage generated.
Instead of taking it to a landfill, as is the case in most of Chile, the waste is subjected to natural processes such as composting and vermiculture and ends up being converted into high-quality fertilizer.
This, in turn, is used in the municipal nursery, where the residents who collaborate in the program can stock up whenever they want and beautify their gardens.
A “virtuous circle” that is changing the face of this impoverished municipality, which recycles about 20 tons of waste a day and saves about $100,000 a year that it would cost to take it to landfills.
“If I generate 100 tons, I have to collect them all, but if I manage to divert that waste, I automatically save,” the director of La Pintana’s Environmental Management Department (DIGA), Felipe Marchant, explained to EFE.
“It is not an excuse not to recycle”
Aurora Castro, a municipal worker, is known in La Pintana as the “mother of worms” because 10 years ago she revolutionized DIGA: an Italian neighbor gave her half a kilo of Californian red worms.
“Before, we worked with guano (excrement) from animals and it didn’t work much because it is an acid medium,” he acknowledged to EFE.
With “sacrifice, affection and gratitude”, Castro managed to implement vermiculture in the municipality and improve the quality of recycling.
The program, started in 2005, has been recognized by international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and has been visited by environmentalists such as the Finnish Leena Vuotovesi and governments such as Canada, which in 2022 donated close to 200,000 dollars for the construction of “ecotrincheras” to speed up the composting process and reduce the greenhouse effect.
“The lack of resources cannot be an excuse to take care of the environment and that is how the neighbors have understood it,” the mayor, Claudia Pizarro, who has been in office since 2016, told EFE.
“Community Engagement”
Neighborhood commitment is precisely the pillar of this project that places La Pintana as an exception in Chile, one of the countries that generates the most garbage in the region (about 1.13 kilograms per person per day) and that recycles the least.
“This is a young commune, here there is no belonging to the neighborhood and any type of intervention from the public will always be seen from a distance”, admitted the director of DIGA.
“How to counteract this and generate identity? Being the best at something, making people proud,” she added.
Vegetables are not the only thing that is recycled in this Santiago municipality: pruning remains, for example, are used to build urban furniture and sewing workshops are made with old fabrics.
In addition, an initiative has recently been launched to convert vegetables that are discarded at outdoor fairs into preserves.
It is estimated that globally a third of food for human consumption is wasted, which generates a great environmental impact, since it produces methane, the greenhouse gas responsible for the climate crisis.
“La Pintana has a commitment to the community,” the mayor said proudly.