Above: Team members from McKinsey.org, Almado, City of Buenos Aires, and Barrio 31 cooperatives work together to sort waste samples for a baseline assessment

Our Buenos Aires pilot of our Rethinking Recycling initiative is the cover story of the March 2019 edition of Está Pasando Acá (“It’s Happening Here”), the magazine of the Social and Urban Integration Secretariat of the City of Buenos Aires. The city government is our partner in the project.

The article celebrates the initial progress the pilot project has made since its launch in Buenos Aires’ Barrio 31 in late 2018. It profiles the two local cooperatives that are going door to door every day in the barrio to educate neighbors on the value of recycling—and collect a wide variety of recyclables.

It quotes one cooperative member, Héctor Javier Sanabria, saying: “People are learning a lot, there’s less trash, and the barrio is getting cleaner. People who didn’t know about recycling are now joining the effort and starting to recycle.”

The article notes that, in the short time since its launch, the project has collected more than two metric tons of glass, and nearly 2.5 tons of paper and cardboard—as well as tins, plastic, and nylon.