Recycling Connection: for a circular, inclusive and regenerative economy

The unsustainable consumption of natural resources on a finite planet is the central problem of the environmental and social crisis. We currently apply a production and consumption model based on a linear economy, which results in pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, poverty, and inequality. Analyzing the transformation of society's consumption and material processing over the past 50 years reveals a massive increase in irreversible damage to our planet and societies. According to the International Resource Panel (2024) report, while the recorded annual consumption rate in 2020 was 14 tons per capita—a 100% increase from the 1970 average—by 2060, based on a 1970 average of 7 billion tons, an annual rate of material extraction and processing is expected to reach 160 trillion tons. This has severe consequences: 55% of greenhouse gas emissions fuel climate catastrophe, 40% of airborne particles are polluting and affect people's lives, current land use is responsible for 90% of total biodiversity loss, and seven minerals are at risk of extinction.

In Argentina, the average annual per capita generation is estimated at 1 kg of urban solid waste (MSW) per day and 4 kg of non-special industrial waste per year, depending on the urban metabolism and socioeconomic conditions of each locality. In general, municipalities and communes charge citizens a Lighting, Sweeping, and Cleaning (ABL) fee that falls far short of covering the costs of comprehensive waste management. Currently, only 300 of the 2,200 municipalities dispose of their waste in sanitary landfills, and the rest in open-air dumps, with the resulting negative environmental and social impact. The recycling rate is only 5%.

In the context of this ecological, climate, social, and resource crisis, waste has begun to be considered an input for new production processes and for the regeneration of nature. The vision of the traditional linear economic system, where natural resources are extracted, transformed into materials and products, and finally eliminated through incineration, controlled burial, or open-air dumping, must be replaced by a vision of a circular economy, which proposes a bioeconomy tailored to the limits of nature and promotes the circulation of materials, water, and energy through composting, repair, recycling, reuse, or remanufacturing, thus extending the life cycle of products and including recycled materials among their components (ecodesign).

In our country, we have an ecosystem of 250 recycling industries, 330 waste sorting plants, and 240 collection centers within the territory that would allow for an increase in the recycling rate. This scenario not only enables the transition to the circular economy paradigm, but also presents a great opportunity for social impact: the inclusion of urban recyclers—who generally work under precarious working conditions and without recognition of the service they provide as being of public utility and collective interest—in the materials recovery system. The model of the City of Buenos Aires seems to demonstrate that the recycling system improves its productivity and inclusion indicators through the incorporation of recyclers, as their work during the environmental promotion phases, in conveying the message of source separation to residents, and in door-to-door and large generators' differentiated collection, is effective.

This is why, as part of the technical team at La Ciudad Posible Argentina, we developed Conexión Reciclado (Recycling Connection): a digital platform that aims to accelerate the transition toward a circular, inclusive, and regenerative economy through collaborative connections between all stakeholders in the recycling ecosystem. We facilitate a meeting space for companies, municipalities, recyclers, and urban processors in the country, so they can work together to transform waste, byproducts, and losses into products with an environmental and social impact.

We work with four strategic tools: Map, Connect, Report, and Incubate. These tools are designed to reduce resource consumption, recirculate materials, water, and energy, consider circularity from design to end-of-life, and eliminate the concept of waste, generating social, economic, and environmental benefits. These tools are developed on our website (www.conexionreciclado.com.ar), where we also produce and provide articles, publications, prices for recyclable materials, classifieds, and technical workshops related to the recycling ecosystem.

The environmental crisis demands proposals that reactivate and incentivize the recycling industry and improve its regional competitiveness. Currently, the industry is concentrated in the center of the country—even in the case of some material streams, it has a monopolistic position—and is experiencing a complex situation as a result of successive crises and a lack of incentive and promotion policies. For this reason, platforms like Conexión Reciclado are essential to accelerate the transition toward a circular, regenerative, and inclusive economy.