Buenos Aires gov't works with NGO to promote electronics recycle

The city government of Buenos Aires has promoted a new campaign to recycle electronics with the help of a non-governmental organization in a bid to make the city greener.

"We launched a new campaign to receive electronic waste this month. People can therefore properly dispose of the equipment they have at home," like white goods and IT products, Cecilia Allen, deputy manager for solid urban waste and green spaces at Buenos Aires' environmental protection agency, told Xinhua.

Buenos Aires started an electronics recycle program in 2013. Since then over 51,000 pieces of scrapped electronics have been collected, according to government figures. The new campaign builds on the old one, with collecting spots at various important areas of the city.

"People welcome these campaigns, but we are still lacking the channels we needed to collect cellphones, keyboards or printers," Allen said.

After collection, the electronic waste is taken to the NGO Recycling Work and Dignity, which is officially franchised to handle the waste.

"The pieces that can still be useful will be fixed, the rest are sold to be recycled, mainly plastic and metal. The NGO extends the service life of as much equipment as possible. Furthermore, recycling provides jobs to a lot of people," Allen added.

Though the city recycle program has saved plenty of electronic waste, it calls for more efforts to build a greener society as Argentina reportedly generates 290,000 tons of electronic waste a year. Endi