recycling
Stories
Chile
The Upstanding Citizens Who Rummage Through My Trash
Walking through the center of Santiago one day in October, an American friend of mine drops her empty soda bottle ... read more
by Matthew Hintsa
09 Apr 2009
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![<p>Pepe and Vicki, I learn, have lived together as unmarried partners for 28 years and have been working as <em>cartoneros</em> for the past six months. Between trips to the local recycling center a couple of times a week, they store their gathered items on their property. Rates for cardboard run around 25 Chilean pesos (4 cents) per pound, newspapers around 20 pesos per pound, white paper 55, and aluminum 200. The couple also sells many of their found items at a <em>ferias libres</em>, or open markets of sorts, that take place a few times a week in different parts of Santiago. “Imagine, if you try to go work for the municipality, they’re going to pay you how much? Maybe 200,000 pesos [per month]... that's not enough!” Pepe tells me. “But sometimes we can make up to 30,000 pesos in a day!” <br />
</p>](http://media.glimpse.org/uploads/mZLUOU/large.png)

