Cipolletti and an open-air landfill: between environmental collapse and the hope for a structural solution
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Cipolletti and an open-air landfill: between environmental collapse and the hope for a structural solution
The open-air dump in Cipolletti (Río Negro), located in the northeastern end of the city, continues to operate as the epicenter of informal waste management. The Integrated Urban Solid Waste Management (GIRSU) project, designed to coordinate efforts among six municipalities in the Alto Valle, has been presented, reformulated, and relaunched since 2020 without concrete results. The National Law 25.916, regulated in 2022, governs the management of urban solid waste in Argentina. According to official data, more than 19 million tons of USW are generated annually, with 99.8% waste collection coverage.
Close to inhabited areas and with precarious infrastructure, the site represents a persistent environmental wound in the Alto Valle of Río Negro.
On a daily basis, the site receives:
120 tons of municipal solid waste
150 tons of rubble
An average monthly of 3,600 tons and yearly of 43,200 tons
The waste is brought in by 25 trips of garbage trucks in different shifts and between 6 and 10 containers daily, all destined for a space lacking signage, signaling, fences, and weighing scales.
Health Impact and Informal Labor
Each arriving truck generates expectations among at least 20 individuals scavenging for recyclables or food, facing:
Extreme exposure conditions
Absence of health measures
Increasing dependence as an economic livelihood
“What is salvaged is very little,” confessed one of the workers in a dialogue with the LM Cipolletti portal. “The situation seen daily is difficult.”
GIRSU: A Stalled Plan
The Integrated Urban Solid Waste Management (GIRSU) project, designed to coordinate efforts among six municipalities in the Alto Valle, has been presented, reformulated, and relaunched since 2020 without concrete results.
In March of this year, the Río Negro Environmental Secretariat visited the site with the French Development Agency (AFD) and a local consulting firm to assess its reactivation, but no progress has been made since then.
Cipolletti has:
14 hectares for the current dump
6 additional hectares for the development of GIRSU
The Secretary of Services, Adrián Artero, mentioned operational improvements with the addition of machinery but admitted that the dump must stop operating as an open-air site to align with the plan’s objectives.
A National Model Still Untransformed
The National Law 25.916, regulated in 2022, governs the management of urban solid waste in Argentina. According to official data:
More than 19 million tons of USW are generated annually
99.8% waste collection coverage
Persisting 5,000 open-air dumps, with high environmental and health impact
In this framework, urban recyclers (RU) play a key role in:
Reducing waste volume
Circular economy
Mitigating ecological damage
Cipolletti: Containment without Resolution
The municipality continues to allocate budget for waste collection but fails to make progress in:
Separation at the source
Recycling policies
Community environmental education
“Today the focus is on containing the problem, not solving it,” the report states.