Argentina Waste Market

study

Business case analysis. Phase 1

Diego Gutiérrez
Industrial Engineer and PhD in Business Administration

Buenos Aires-Argentina- 1
Email: phddiegogutierrez@gmail.com
 Law and regulation summary
• We investigated almost 30 cities around Argentina Country and interviewed
politicians, governments, mayors and environmental lawyers.
• Almost 70% of Argentinean cities are implementing waste management regulations
and laws.
• Every city is his own MSW owner and every one must implement strategies in order
to avoid environmental impact.
• Argentina country has already implemented a national waste management law Nº
25916 since 2004, including an environmental law Nº 25675.Both of them have a
strong impact in each province and city.
• Main cities like Buenos Aires has already implemented local laws for urban collector
system (Nº992) and Waste “Zero” (Nº1854) with intention of reducing final disposition
in Landfills, stimulating selection, sorting and recycling.
• Buenos Aires Province has already implemented and Integral Management of Urban
Solid Waste (Nº13 592), Decree 869/2008 for recycling in origin and Regulation
OPDS 177/2010 in order to stimulate recycling cooperatives.
• The rest of provinces, municipalities and cities have their own regulation, laws and
degrees for MSW. However, all of them are covered by National Law Nº 25916.

Buenos Aires-Argentina 2
 Waste Cycle summary
• We are collecting information about almost 50 cities with upper 100 habitant around
Argentina Country which represent almost the 70% of total population.
• Only main urban cities have MSW figures, including backup data, tendencies and
composition information. For sample, Buenos Aires City increased the level of
disposition on Landfill during 2009 and his goal for 2010 is reducing the last figures at
least 20%, but current tendency is not favorable for it goal because current actions
are not enough.
• Presorted SW has been implemented in several cities through differential collection.
• All provinces and cities have formal collectors though private companies and informal
collector through “urban collectors”. Most of them are joined in Cooperatives around
main cities or inside of landfills.
• Incineration in Buenos Aires for MSW is forbidden until now, because old technologies
like gas burners produce dioxins and another carcinogenic products and
environmental impact.
• The most technological landfills are located in main cities like Buenos Aires, Cordoba
or Santa Fe. In Buenos Aires, CEAMSE manages collection, sorting and final
disposition for MSW in three landfills. Every one has technology for treating lixiviates,
producing methane gas and compost.
• At this moment the Argentina recycling level is almost a figure between 2 to 5
%.(Value to be confirmed soon).

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 Some waste cycle charts.
WASTE STREAM EVOLUCTION FOR BUENOS AIRES CITY International Prices for M SW M anagement

60.0 U$S/ t on
2,000,000 60 U$ S/ ton
57.0 U$S/ t on
1,500,000
53.0 U$S/ t on
Others+ Aggregates
1,000,000
Cleannig services 50 U$ S/ ton
48.0 U$S/ t on 48.0 U$S/ t on
500,000 Home waste

0
2004 2007 2008 2009
40 U$ S/ ton
38.0 U$S/ t on
YEARS

33.0 U$S/ t on

30.0 U$S/ t on
30 U$ S/ ton

20 U$ S/ ton

C EA M S E 12 , 3 U $ S / t on c/ T r ansf er st at i on

10 U$ S/ ton
9.0 U$S/ t on
7.8 U$S/ t on
C EA M S E 4 , 6 U $ S / t on. Onl y by f i na l di sposi t i on i n l a ndf i l l

S out h A me r i c a
0 U$ S/ ton

Fresh Hills - - Chile Rí o de Paraguay España Ile de France - Alemania Holanda Dianmarca Irlanda Inglat erra
EE.UU. Janeiro - Francia -
Brasil -

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 Waste Market for recycles.
Market For Recyclables Value Chain
Percentage of the price paid by the industry that each link receives
receives
Gatherers
Recuperators Cliente
Materias
/ Separators Small/GatherersBig/ Converters Industry Final
General specialized

45% 100%
• Street collectors /
recyclers • Gathering Private formal •Paper and
“cartoneros” 25% Cooperative: Cardboard
Population
“Green
•Glass
Centers”
• Selection •Plastic
Waste • Private
Collecctors Cooperatives 25% Informal •Aluminum
•Iron and Stell
• Classification and •Others
Landfill
Separation Plant
(private and
social) 45%

•Paper, cardboard, glass and plastic are the most important products to be collected and recycled.
•Big gatherers can store huge quantities of material and negotiate the best prices.
•Small gatherers and collector are almost under informal system, excluded from tax system.
•Paper, cardboard, iron and Plastic are exported around 60,000 ton. China is the most important
consumer of PET.
•Paper, cardboard, iron and Plastic are exported around 20,000 ton. Chile and USA are the most
important suppliers.
•Importation and Exportation barriers are applied for papers and plastic, where duties reach 20%.
•Subsidies are applied to Recycling Cooperatives with assets. (Ex. Building, land, machineries, etc)
Buenos Aires-Argentina 5
 Waste Market for recycles
ESTIMATED RECYCLED MATERIALS PRICES MARKET FOR RECYCLABLES
Paid by chain links ARGENTINE MARKET DEMAND
Dollars/ton In tones an dollars (2009)
Paid by Dollars/ton
Small Gatherer Big Gatherer Recyclable Tones Dollars
Material Reclclable (received by street (received by small
Industry average
(received by big
collectors and gatherer and
cooperatives) separation plants
gatherer) Paper and Cardboard 985.177 150 147.776.550
Paper and Cardboard Plastic 109.914 200 21.982.800
Mixed Paper 25,25 45,45 101 Aluminun 6.091 1018 6.200.638
White Paper 63,5 114,3 254 Glass 750.000 48 36.000.000
Journal Paper 35 63 140 TOTAL 188.441 211.959.988
Magazine Paper 35 63 140 WASTE EXPORTS
Premium Cardboard 51 91,8 204 IN THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND TONS BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
Cardboard second quality 25,5 45,9 102 TONS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
2008 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010
Plastics ALUMINUM
Polyethylene terephthalate PET Brazil 192,8 876,9 489,4 420,2 1.079,3 782,5
transparent 57,5 103,5 230 IRON & STEEL
Polyethylene terephthalate PET Indonesia 8.408,0 2.617,8
color 38 68,4 152 Netherlands 4.374,6 8.712,7
Hard Plastic 37,5 67,5 150 Taiwan 797,8 442,0
High Density Polyethylene PE- United States 745,5 1.244,0
HD 75 135 300 Spain 639,1 686,6
Others 1.444,1 627,7
Polyvinyl chloride PVC 75 135 300
TOTAL IRON AND STEEL 16.409,0 14.330,7
Glass GLASS
Transparent Glass 13,25 23,85 53 Chile 39,1 18,0 1,7 0,8
Green Glass 11,5 20,7 46 Paraguay 9.388,0 7.439,0 1.688,4 408,0 417,7 91,3
TOTAL GLASS 9.388,0 7.478,1 1.706,4 408,0 419,3 92,2
Mixed Glass 11,5 20,7 46
PLASTIC
Metals China 32.659,6 28.782,1 11.833,8 20.836,3 14.862,1 6.991,1
Vietnam 5.484,7 336,8 - 3.569,8 186,2 -
Copper 1208,75 2175,75 4.835 United States 4.466,1 4.817,9 1.946,6 5.116,6 3.444,0 1.663,1
Ireland 2.534,1 94,5 377,6 2.343,1 64,3 322,5
Aluminum 286,25 515,25 1.145 Chile 2.434,5 2.911,8 1.670,7 1.518,7 1.758,1 1.119,9
Hong Kong 1.936,1 1.298,0 433,7 1.056,4 472,6 257,8
Aluminum Cans 254,5 458,1 1.018
Brazil 1.829,3 352,5 370,7 1.168,9 184,9 161,0
Steel 159 286,2 636 others 1.496,1 1.493,1 522,7 705,2 503,5 92,7
TOTAL PLASTIC 52.840,4 40.086,6 17.155,8 36.315,0 21.475,6 10.608,2
Iron 23,5 42,3 94 PAPER AND CARDBOARD
Lead 254,5 458,1 1.018 China 536,3 - - 45,7 - -
Bolivia 25,4 151,5 - 5,1 32,6 -
Tin Cans 14,75 26,55 59 others 3,4 42,9 30,0 0,0 15,2 1,5
TOTAL PAPER AND CARDBOARD 565,1 194,4 30,0 50,8 47,8 1,5

Source: Prepared on the basis of the National Observatory of Urban Solid Waste Management

Buenos Aires-Argentina 6
To be continued
See you soon!!

Buenos Aires-Argentina 7