Sustainability or a Waste?: A study of the impacts of the Basura Cero law on the social sustainability of the cartoneros in Buenos Aires

Abstract: This thesis aims to investigate what implications that the environmentally oriented waste management law Basura Cero has on the social sustainability situation of marginalised waste pickers – cartoneros - in Buenos Aires. This aim is attempted through critical analysis of the results of interviews and observations conducted in Buenos Aires in the spring of 2013, and discussion of the findings in relation to the current sustainability debate. The results indicate that while the law is failing environmentally, it has contributed to the improved social situation for the cartoneros in the city. However, in light of sustainable development theorists from both mainstream- and critical camps, it becomes important to discuss if such changes represent long-term sustainability, or a solidification of neoliberal structures that through the discourse of sustainability justifies exclusion. In sum, the Basura Cero law does seem to have an impact on the social sustainability situation of cartoneros, an impact that in a short-term perspective is clearly positive, but in the long-term perspective can be questioned.