Recycling. Sort waste to improve life in the slums of Lima, 20 Minutes, 14/01/11, 11:47
Audrey Chauvet
Ciudad Saludable The association does not want to see the waste piling up in poor neighborhoods ...
When she arrived in Lima to his studies, Albina Ruiz knew neither the waste nor poverty. Born in the jungle, she was shocked by the unsanitary of the Peruvian capital: "It was very difficult to spend all day in the mid- Waste and rats, "recalls she. Determined to improve the situation, she created an NGO in 1986, Ciudad Saludable (Healthy City "), which includes recycling in micro-enterprises and increases the amount of waste recovered and their income.
Albina is one of the "heroines" of the series "Architects of Change" which will air on TV5 Monde
spring.
Two dollars a day is ten dollars today
Recycling existed lorsqu'Albina has arrived in Lima, but primarily due to the abandonment by the local slums and the search for small income. The people who can not afford to pay the municipal collection service, waste recyclers and piled them amateurs salvaged what they could to sell it to middlemen. But the result was not good for the environment or for recycling, often hunted by the police or the "little masterpieces of discharge which meant that everyone working for them."
"Before, recyclers earned, on a good day, no more than two dollars (1.5 euros). Now they are organized, their earnings may go up ten dollars (7.5 euros) per day or more if they add value to the recovered material, for example if they cut the plastic and sell in small pieces, "says Albina Ruiz. His secret: to have reduced the work of recyclers by asking people to sort their waste and eliminate intermediaries.
"They needed help to change their ways of working, that is to say training, access to credit to buy their equipment, but also recognition," says Albina Ruiz. That's what worked Ciudad Saludable: recyclers have come together to increase the amount of waste treated, buy motorcycles or pickup trucks, and work under better conditions of hygiene.
Seven countries in Latin America, India and Africa soon
But to improve recycling, it should also convince people to sort their waste : "When we started to go door to door saying" We'll have to sort ", they told me" The municipality can, and why I would help this person have a job? "", recalls Albina Ruiz.
She then found motivation: a "good green" which offers a 20% discount on the cost of waste collection (1 euro per month) for people who adhere to the services of Ciudad Saludable.
After 25 years of existence, Ciudad Saludable opere in sixty cities in Peru and has helped nearly 200 people. "They realize that there are profits social, economic and environmental. It uses fewer natural resources, and of course we decrease the mountains of trash and it allows the creation of clean cities, "says Albina Ruiz.
In Peru, the principle has been supported by the new ministry of environment and could well spread elsewhere: "We are already working in seven countries in Latin America and India. This year we hope to arrive in Africa, "says Albina Ruiz.
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