For the past decade, residents in this district on the southwest side of the Argentine capital, which has a population of 300,000, have been complaining about health problems that they blame on a sanitary landfill in the area that receives 2,500 tons a day of garbage. The landfill is run by CEAMSE, a company created 33 years ago, during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, to collect and dispose of garbage in the metropolitan At first it received rubbish from the city of Buenos Aires and several outlying districts. But as a result of the pressure from residents, a new law was passed limiting the reception of waste to La Matanzas.
The rest of the trash goes to other dumps operated by CEAMSE on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, which are almost filled, as environmental organisations complain. The company itself has recognised that the landfills are operating at the limits of capacity and is seeking new land. The ‘Zero Waste’ law was approved in 2005, but nothing was done until 2007, and in 2008, it was dismantled. The plan was to reduce the proportion of waste that went to landfills by 50 percent as of this year. But no progress was made towards that goal. The people of González Catán successfully pressed for a regulation reducing the amount of garbage buried in the dump. They also presented a proposal to the La Matanza authorities for the recycling and reuse of waste. https://www.ipsnews.net/2012/12/landfill-in-argentine-capital- kills-slowly.
