Cardboard train wreck
in Buenos Aires

Since Argentina's 2001 economic crisis, thousands of workers excluded from the formal labour market have taken to the streets, collecting cardboard and materials to sell to recycling centres — a practice known as cartoneo.

To support this movement, the Sarmiento, Mitre and San Martin railway lines launched the "Tren blanco": stripped-down trains chartered to carry callejeros and their giant carros from working-class districts to the commercial areas generating the most waste. When these trains closed in 2006, cartoneros organised — forming a federation (FACCYR), a union (UTEP), and cooperatives like the MTE (18,000+ workers) — establishing centros de reciclados across the country as intermediaries with buyers.

On 10th December 2023, president Javier Milei's deregulation of imports caused cardboard prices to collapse by 50% in a single month, pushing the more than 150,000 cartoneros deeper into precarity.

Cartonero workers sorting recyclable materials on a conveyor belt at a Buenos Aires cooperative

Female cooperative worker in green uniform looking out over the sorting facility, Buenos Aires

Worker dragging a sack of collected materials past stacked bales of compressed cardboard

Cartonero pushing an overloaded carro through a Buenos Aires street corner, Argentina

Two men rummaging through street bins in a Buenos Aires commercial district

Portrait of a cartonero standing beside his loaded carro in Buenos Aires

Young cartonero struggling to balance a heavily loaded carro on a Buenos Aires street

Teenage cartonero collecting cardboard boxes from a pavement in Buenos Aires

Cartonero posing with his trolley loaded with recovered goods beside a graffiti wall, Buenos Aires

Massive carro loaded with white sacks of collected materials on a Buenos Aires street

Three men sorting cardboard and waste bags beneath a tree on a Buenos Aires boulevard

Cartonero couple taking a break on a park bench with their child, Buenos Aires

Cartonero pulling his carro through a quiet residential street at dusk, Buenos Aires

Elderly cartonero pushing an enormous load under a highway overpass, Buenos Aires

Security barrier in front of the Argentine Congress with graffiti reading 'Libertad tener comer', Buenos Aires

Two cartoneros walking away from a bus terminal area carrying sacks, Buenos Aires

Argentine flag hanging beside industrial baling machinery inside a cartonero cooperative

Smiling cartonero in a yellow vest pushing his carro across a busy Buenos Aires intersection

Large pile of discarded cardboard boxes left on a Buenos Aires pavement awaiting collection

Group of cartoneros resting on a median strip beside a dumpster and shopping trolley, Buenos Aires

Cartonero workers at a sorting station inside a recycling cooperative, Buenos Aires

Cartonero cooperative worker standing in a large industrial recycling facility, Buenos Aires

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Cardboard train wreckin Buenos Aires

Cardboard train wreck
in Buenos Aires