Cartoneros, recolección informal, ambiente y políticas públicas en Buenos Aires 2001-2012

This paper seeks to analyze the characteristics of the informal circuit of waste collection and recovery in Buenos Aires - developed since the late 1990’s and, especially, towards the end of 2001 - and investigate the reasons that stimulate the circuit growth, the new characteristic acquired by the circuit in the second stage, and the positioning taken by environmental theory and public policies about this typology of waste recovery, prototypical in Latin American cities. Parallel to waste management performed by the government, an informal way of waste collection and recovery has been devel...