This post is written by Natalia Herbst, Senior Advisor at Vice Presidency, Buenos Aires Legislature, with support from Kieshka Preuilh.

  • The problem: #BARecycle’s original goals for organic waste fell short of citizens’ expectations, based on what they expressed in participatory spaces we created.

  • Why it matters: As we created spaces for dialogue and engagement for citizens, we needed to respond to what came up in those spaces if we expect the programme to gain the legitimacy needed to create impact

  • The solution: Re-shaping goals and policy design based on citizen demand.

Before the launch of #BARecycle, organic waste management by the city was focused on a collection route for macrogenerators (mainly restaurants in high transit areas and chain supermarkets). At this stage, the city was collecting 380 tons daily before the pandemic, and on average 200 daily tons in the first months after covid re-openings but before the launch of the programme that were processed at the city’s recycling centre to produce compost that was later used in city parks. This has since increased to 415 tons daily.

In the second stage of development of our organic agenda, we added the first interaction with citizens, offering this same compost produced at the recycling centre to citizens that either brought recyclables to selected centres in city parks; and also established a series of monthly roundtables with the city’s leading sustainability activists, NGOs and influencers. The main objective of these spaces was to share with them the planning for #BARecycle during late 2020 and early 2021 before its launch in order to get their first impressions and feedback.

Getting citizens’ opinions

This was a turning point for the organics chapter of the programme, as the feedback we got at these participatory spaces was that the agenda we were proposing, which was mostly focused on recycling and maintaining the pre-existing offer for organics treatment, was not ambitious enough. Faced with this situation the ministry’s team went through several phases. We had to consider what were other options to scale the offer, and what resources were needed to implement such policies. We also didn’t have the information necessary to assess if this was something that related to the average citizen’s demands and priorities and whether there would be citizen engagement to a programmatic offer in this topic; or if it was just a very relevant point raised by citizen-experts that would have a limited impact in practice.

At the same time, as we see these actors in the sustainability field as key to the cultural transformation component of our programme both in terms of reach and communication, as well as legitimising it with their audiences, we thought it was fundamental to act on what came up on the participatory spaces we created for them.

In this context, we decided to take a first step, and pilot receiving household-generated organic waste, once a week during a five-hour window in five of the 70 Green Points located in parks across the city. The Green Points originally offer a wider range of recyclables reception than the green containers, including used vegetable oil, batteries, separated disposal of glass, cardboard and plastic; they come with a specialised team from the city to provide information about sustainable practices, and the processing of the received materials is done by waste picker co-ops.

"By December 2021 the city registered a 10% increase in the tons of organic waste collected."

What happened next

Much to our surprise the pilot that ran for a month - which counted with the influencers, activists and NGOs as partners to communicate the new service - was a complete success receiving organics from 91 people on the first day, to jump to 454 and 634 respectively in the two following weeks. The rapid growth in participation confirmed there was a citizen demand for this service as there was a critical mass of people that were already prepared to take on these habits but may have barriers to doing it properly at home.

Since then, we have progressively scaled the programme which now includes the reception of organics at 19 Green Points on Thursdays and at 15 local fairs on Saturdays (as we received requests to provide more options that don’t overlap with working hours), and 15 community composting bins operating every day during the same hours as the Green Point adjacent to which these are located. These 49 points cover all the boroughs in the city.

Compared to December 2020 before the programme was launched, by December 2021 the city registered a 10% increase in the tons of organic waste collected. However, lixiviate (the liquid produced by waste when it starts to decompose) was a major challenge in the implementation of the community composting bins, as in the bins’ first iteration leakages produced unpleasant smells that were highlighted in citizens’ complaints, leading us to design a second generation of bins to amend that fault.

"We learned in many cases the best role we can play is that of creating a platform for citizens to connect, propose and then broker their initiatives leading to hybrid actions in which our role can vary substantially."

Lessons learned

This experience taught us several lessons. Firstly, participatory spaces with expert citizens and key opinion leaders are fundamental in any effort to produce cultural change. If opened, it is fundamental teams are flexible and prepared to incorporate feedback even if it challenges prior assumptions.

Secondly, for this agenda, the Covid emergency context was more an opportunity than a challenge. As a norm, before lockdowns and the covid experience people were less aware of the volume and types of waste they generate as this happened at different places at different times. The pandemic not only prompted broad conversations about sustainability, but by forcing people to stay at home for prolonged periods of time it made many of them reflect on their consumption patterns and sustainability choices, including how much waste they produce as they saw it all together in the same place every day, and what are the options available to dispose of it increasing the receptivity of the conversation we proposed.

Lastly, both in the Green Ambassadors and in the organic waste experiences, while the initial impulse may be for the government to propose all-encompassing services, we learned in many cases the best role we can play is that of creating a platform for citizens to connect, propose and then broker their initiatives leading to hybrid actions in which our role can vary substantially.

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