Carolina Ortega solía ir cada domingo en la mañana al centro de reciclaje Punto Limpio en la adinerada comuna de Vitacura en Santiago, pero desde que se volvió demasiado concurrido los fines de semana intenta ir durante la semana.

“Separo todo en la casa y luego lo traigo acá", señala. Siento que estoy ayudando al medio ambiente, hay gente que dice que es insignificante, pero esto es mejor a que todo termine en un relleno sanitario".

Ortega, residente de Vitacura, ha notado el aumento en la cantidad de gente, en especial de familias con niños pequeños, quienes llegan al Punto Limpio con autos cargados de botellas de vidrio, latas de aluminio, contenedores plásticos y diarios, entre otros artículos.

La mayoría de las municipalidades en Santiago operan sus propios Puntos Limpios, pero el de Vitacura es el más grande y uno de los pocos que acepta artículos como pilas y medicamentos vencidos, además de desechos de gran tamaño como artículos electrónicos y metal chatarra.

Según Manuel Valdés, quien administra el Punto Limpio, otras municipalidades de todo Chile e incluso de otros países de América lo han visitado para ver cómo funciona.

“El sesenta por ciento de todo lo que recibimos aquí se recicla", sostiene. “El mayor problema es la creciente cantidad de basura, lo que es un costo, porque termina en el vertedero, no ayuda a nadie".

Valdés es empleado de Demarco, parte del grupo de gestión de residuos Urbaser-Danner propiedad de inversionistas españoles y estadounidenses, el que tiene contrato con la Municipalidad de Vitacura para operar el centro.

La municipalidad además tiene acuerdos con compañías como Gerdau Aza, Cristalerías Chile y Cementos Polpaico que recolectan y reciclan el metal, el vidrio y el plástico, respectivamente. Estas compañías no pagan directamente a la municipalidad, pero se les exige que hagan donaciones de beneficencia cada mes, explica Valdés.

El centro ha estado operando desde el 2005 y en la actualidad, en promedio, recibe 400 vehículos diariamente, los que llegan a entre 600 y 800 los fines de semana. De hecho, se ha vuelto tan popular -el crecimiento anual promedio es del 25%- que Valdés está considerando limitar el ingreso solo a residentes de Vitacura.

Él atribuye el crecimiento a la educación. La información esta disponible a través del sitio web y la municipalidad ha lanzado un programa educacional en colegios de la comuna. “Son los niños los que traen a sus padres”, afirma Valdés.

Irónicamente, Vitacura -que es una de las municipalidades con el mayor ingreso per cápita de Chile- también genera la mayor cantidad de basura per cápita: cerca de 2,09 kilos por día en el 2009, según un estudio de la Comisión Nacional de Medio Ambiente (CONAMA), casi el doble que el promedio nacional de 1,3 kilos, pero también lidera el camino en materia de reciclaje.

No en mi Patio

El Punto Limpio de Vitacura es un caso especial, pero señala un cambio de actitud en Chile respecto de la basura. Los consumidores, a menudo alentados por sus hijos, se están volviendo más conscientes sobre los beneficios de reciclar y están exigiendo que las empresas gestionen sus residuos de manera responsable.

Pero este cambio es muy reciente. Apenas en el año 1995, todos los residuos producidos en el país terminaban en vertederos no autorizados. Sin embargo, hoy en día, el 69% de los residuos generados por los chilenos se transporta a rellenos sanitarios que cumplen con normas ambientales y sanitarias, mientras que el 22% termina en vertederos que cumplen con una legislación más antigua y un 9% lo hace en vertederos ilegales.

Al mismo tiempo, el crecimiento de la población y los mayores ingresos significan que los chilenos están generando más residuos. El primer estudio sobre desechos sólidos en Chile, llevado a cabo por la CONAMA, arrojó que el país generaba 16,9 millones de toneladas de desechos en el 2009, un alza frente a los cerca de 12 millones de toneladas del 2000, de los cuales 6,5 millones de toneladas correspondieron a desechos municipales, principalmente residenciales y comerciales, mientras que 10,4 millones de toneladas eran industriales.

Alrededor del 10% de los residuos sólidos se reciclan, lo que es una gran mejora frente al 0% de hace 20 años, pero aún es muy inferior a las tasas de los países desarrollados: en Estados Unidos cerca del 34% de los residuos municipales se recicla o se destina a compostaje.

En Chile, las municipalidades son responsables de la recolección y disposición de sus propios residuos según su propio criterio. La mayoría adjudica contratos a agencias de recolección que trasladan la basura a rellenos sanitarios administrados de manera privada, usualmente localizados en la periferia de las ciudades cerca de áreas pobres donde el terreno es barato y donde es menos probable que los habitantes se quejen.

Estos contratos, como están diseñados actualmente, no ofrecen ningún incentivo para reducir los residuos dado que las municipalidades acuerdan pagar una cantidad por tonelada que es menor mientras mayores sean los volúmenes de basura.

“La mayoría de las municipalidades limitan su gestión a la disposición final de los residuos sin considerar posibilidades de prevención o su potencial valorización y reciclaje”, asevera Ricardo Irarrázabal, subsecretario de Medio Ambiente de Chile.

En la actualidad, la Región Metropolitana de Santiago cuenta con tres rellenos sanitarios: Loma los Colorados (Til Til), Santiago Poniente (Maipú) y Santa Marta (San Bernardo), los que reciben residuos de toda la ciudad incluidas comunas como Vitacura y Las Condes que no cuentan con sus propios rellenos.

El transporte de basura a través de la ciudad no solo es costoso, afirma Irarrázabal, sino que el sistema perpetúa la inequidad social porque municipalidades de escasos recursos como Maipú y Puente Alto tienen que mantener rellenos sanitarios malolientes y antiestéticos que afectan la calidad de vida de sus habitantes.

En cuanto a los residuos industriales, una pequeña parte es peligrosa incluidos polvos químicos y líquidos tóxicos, los que las empresas deben transportar a uno de los siete sitios de tratamiento especial que son similares a los rellenos sanitarios pero con mejor aislación.

Cerca del 5% de los residuos peligrosos se convierten en combustibles alternativos, pero el resto se entierra en contenedores impermeables. A los residuos se les hace un seguimiento a través del Sistema de Declaración y Seguimiento de Residuos Peligrosos (SIDREP), que opera en línea, pero el problema es que esto solo funciona si la empresa declara los residuos.

“Si no se declara, no existe”, señala Frederick Evendt, gerente general de la firma belgo-chilena Hidronor, la que se especializa en residuos peligrosos con sitios en Santiago, Antofagasta y Concepción.

En consecuencia, algunas empresas evitan los costos de tratamiento al tirar la basura -a riesgo de recibir multas- en ríos y áreas poco pobladas. “Un mejor monitoreo y control ayudaría a reducir esta práctica”, señala Evendt.

Concentrarse en la Prevención de Residuos

El marco legal de la gestión de residuos en Chile se remonta al año 1967 y, a través de varias enmiendas desde entonces, las regulaciones de Chile están hoy en día entre las más estrictas de la región.

Sin embargo, históricamente el énfasis ha estado puesto en la disposición final, en otras palabras en dónde dejar la basura para que no esté a la vista ni en mente. Pero el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente está tratando de cambiar esto concentrándose en la prevención.

“Creemos que estamos listos para dar un salto en la gestión de residuos en Chile”, indica Irarrázabal.

A juicio del ministerio, más del 50% de los residuos municipales podrían reutilizarse o reciclarse, lo que reduciría de manera sustancial la cantidad que termina en los rellenos sanitarios, o que se bota ilegalmente.

La estrategia nacional de gestión de residuos del ministerio está compuesta por cinco pasos en una pirámide invertida, donde la disposición de los mismos está en el último lugar. Sin embargo, antes de esa drástica opción final, los pasos más deseables son prevención, reutilización, reciclaje y valorización de la energía.

“El más importante de estos pasos es prevenir los residuos en primer lugar”, dice Irarrázabal.

Además de los positivos efectos ambientales y sociales, esta estrategia también aspira a reducir el costo para las municipalidades, las que entonces tendrán más fondos para gastar en otros programas.

La educación pública y las iniciativas a nivel municipal, tales como el programa de Vitacura, están ayudando a aumentar la conciencia de los consumidores, pero para que esta estrategia funcione a escala nacional, Chile necesita desarrollar su industria de reciclaje.

Responsabilidad del Productor

En su Evaluación de Desempeño Ambiental 2005, la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE) recomendó, entre otras cosas, que Chile fortaleciera la aplicación del principio de “el que contamina paga”.

En otros países, esto se conoce como Extensión de la Responsabilidad del Productor (EPR, por su sigla en inglés). Este sistema, implementado en Europa en la década de los 90, hacer al productor o importador responsable de recuperar productos como llantas, aceites, baterías y ampolletas al final de su vida útil.

Pero los expertos dicen que Chile podría no estar listo para este tipo de sistema. No solo exige estrictos controles y seguimiento, sino que también una industria de reciclaje con mercados desarrollados y una estructura de costos competitiva, algo que Chile no tiene, todavía.

Una propuesta alternativa, incluida en el proyecto de ley de reforma tributaria del Gobierno, es un “impuesto verde” que se aplicaría a productores o importadores de ciertos artículos tales como los mencionados anteriormente.

El impuesto, que variaría de US$1.000 por un kilo de baterías a US$60 por un litro de aceite, efectivamente significa que el costo será pagado por el consumidor. Según el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, esto solo aumentará el precio final entre un 1% y un 2%.

Parte de la cantidad recolectada se usaría para crear un “fondo verde” destinado a subsidiar iniciativas de reciclaje. Los detalles aún deben afinarse, pero este financiaría la totalidad o parte de la instalación, operación y mantenimiento de los programas de reciclaje del sector privado.

La meta es establecer un sistema de EPR para que las empresas se hagan responsables de sus productos “desde la cuna hasta la sepultura”, sostiene Irarrázabal, pero primero Chile necesita infraestructura de reciclaje, una cultura de reciclaje y una planificación de recolección adecuada.

Sanear Isla de Pascua

Aun cuando el reciclaje es incipiente en Chile, algunas municipalidades como la de Isla de Pascua se han asociados con empresas de reciclaje para reducir su basura.

Carolina Ortega used to come to the Punto Limpio recycling center in Santiago’s upscale Vitacura district every Saturday morning, but since it has become too crowded on weekends she now tries to come during the week.

“I separate everything at home and then bring it all here,” she says. “I feel like I’m helping the environment, there are people who say it’s insignificant, but this is better than everything ending up in a landfill.”

Ortega, a Vitacura resident, has noticed an increase in the number of people, especially families with small children, who show up at the Punto Limpio with carloads of glass bottles, aluminum cans, plastic containers and newspaper, amongst other items.

Most municipalities in Santiago operate their own Puntos Limpios, but Vitacura’s is the largest and one of the few that accepts items like batteries and expired medication, as well as oversized rubbish like electronic appliances and scrap metal.

According to Manuel Valdés, who manages the Punto Limpio, other municipalities from all over Chile, and even other countries in Latin America have visited to see how it works.

“Sixty percent of everything we receive here is recycled,” he says. “The biggest problem is building debris, which is a cost because it ends up in the landfill, it doesn’t help anyone.”

Valdés is employed by Demarco, part of the Urbaser-Danner waste management group of Spanish and US investors, which has a contract from the Municipality of Vitacura to operate the center.

The municipality also has agreements with companies such as Gerdau Aza, Cristalerías Chile and Cementos Polpaico that collect and recycle the metal, glass and plastic, respectively. These companies do not pay the municipality directly but are required to make charitable donations each month, says Valdés.

The center has been operating since 2005 and today, on average, it receives 400 vehicles daily, which rises to 600-800 on the weekends. In fact, it has proved so popular – average annual growth is 25% – that Valdés is considering limiting entry to Vitacura residents only.

He attributes the growth to education. Information is available through the website and the municipality has launched an educational program in local schools. “It’s the kids who bring their parents,” says Valdés.

Ironically, Vitacura, which is one of the municipalities with the highest per capita income in Chile, also produces the most waste per capita – some 2.09 kilos per day in 2009, according a study by the National Environmental Authority (CONAMA), nearly double the national average of 1.3 kilos – but it is also leading the way in recycling.

Not in my backyard

Vitacura’s Punto Limpio is a special case, but it signals a changing attitude in Chile towards waste. Consumers, often encouraged by their children, are becoming aware of the benefits of recycling and are demanding that companies manage their waste responsibly.

But this change is very recent. As recently as 1995, all of the waste produced in the country ended up in unauthorized rubbish dumps, known as vertederos. Today, however, 69% of the waste generated by Chileans is trucked to landfills that meet environmental and sanitation norms, while 22% goes to vertederos that comply with older legislation and 9% ends up in illegal dumps.

At the same time, population growth and higher incomes mean Chileans are producing more rubbish. The first study on solid waste in Chile, carried out by CONAMA, showed the country generate 16.9 million tons of waste in 2009, up from around 12 million tons in 2000, of which 6.5 million tons was municipal waste, mostly residential and commercial, while 10.4 million tons was industrial.

About 10% of total solid waste is recycled, which is a big improvement on nothing 20 years ago, but is still much less than developed countries – in the United States about 34% of municipal waste is recycled or composted.

In Chile, municipalities are responsible for collecting and disposing of their own waste as they see fit. The majority award contracts to collection agencies that truck the garbage to privately managed landfills, usually located on the periphery of cities near to poor areas where land is cheap and residents are less likely to complain.

These contracts, as currently designed, offer no incentive to reduce waste since municipalities agree to pay an amount per ton that is lower for higher volumes of garbage.

“Most municipalities limit their management to final disposal of waste without considering possibilities for prevention or its potential valorization and recycling,” says Ricardo Irarrázabal, Chile’s Undersecretary for the Environment.

Currently, the Santiago Metropolitan Region has three landfills: Loma los Colorados (Til Til), Santiago Poniente (Maipú) and Santa Marta (San Bernardo), which receive waste from all over the city including districts like Vitacura and Las Condes that do not have landfills of their own.

Not only is transporting rubbish across the city expensive, says Irarrázabal, but the system perpetuates social inequality because cash-strapped municipalities like Maipu and Puente Alto have to maintain smelly, unsightly landfills that affect the quality of life of their inhabitants.

As for industrial waste, a small amount is hazardous including chemical powders and toxic liquids, which companies must transport to one of seven special treatment sites that are similar to sanitary landfills but with better insulation.

About 5% of hazardous waste is converted into alternative fuels, but the rest is buried in leak-proof containers. The waste is tracked through the online System for Declaring and Monitoring Hazardous Waste (SIDREP), but the problem is that this only works if the company declares the waste.

“If you don’t declare it, it doesn’t exist,” says Frederick Evendt, general manager of the Belgian-Chilean firm Hidronor, which specializes in hazardous waste with sites in Santiago, Antofagasta and Concepción.

As a result, some companies avoid the costs of treatment by dumping waste, and risking fines, in rivers or unpopulated areas. “Better monitoring and control would help reduce this practice,” says Evendt.

Focus on waste prevention

The legal framework for waste management in Chile dates back to 1967 and, through various amendments since then, Chile’s regulations are currently amongst the strictest in the region.

Historically, however, the emphasis has been on final disposal, in other words where to put waste where it is out of sight and mind. But the Ministry of the Environment is trying to change this to focus more on prevention.

“We believe we are ready to make a leap in waste management in Chile,” says Irarrázabal.

According to the Ministry, more than 50% of municipal waste could be reused or recycled, which would substantially reduce the amount that ends up in landfills – or is dumped illegally.

The Ministry’s national waste management strategy consists of five steps in an inverted pyramid with disposal at the bottom. Before that drastic final option, however, the more desirable steps are prevention, reutilization, recycling and energy valorization.

“The most important of these steps is preventing waste in the first place,” says Irarrázabal.

Apart from the positive environmental and social impacts, this strategy also aims to reduce the cost of for municipalities, which will then have more funds to spend on other programs.

Public education and initiatives at the municipal level, such as Vitacura’s program, are helping to increase consumer awareness, but for this strategy to work on a national scale, Chile needs to develop its recycling industry.

Producer responsibility

In its 2005 Environmental Performance Review of Chile, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recommended, amongst other things, that Chile strengthen the application of the “polluter pays” principle.

In other countries, this is known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). This system, implemented in Europe in the 1990s, makes the producer or importer responsible for recovering products such as tires, oils, batteries and light bulbs at the end of their useful life.

But experts say Chile may not be ready for this type of system. Not only does it require strict controls and monitoring, but also a recycling industry with developed markets and a competitive cost structure, which is something Chile doesn’t have – yet.

An alternative proposal, included in the government’s tax reform bill, is a “green tax” that would charge producers or importers of certain items such as those listed above.

The tax, which would vary from US$1,000 for a kilo of batteries to US$60 for a liter of oil, effectively means that the cost will be paid by the consumer. According to the Environment Ministry, this would only increase the final price by 1-2%.

Part of the amount collected would be used to create a “green fund” to subsidise recycling initiatives. The details have yet to be ironed out, but this would finance all or part of the installation, operation and maintenance of recycling programs in the private sector.

The goal is to establish an EPR system to make companies responsible for their products “from the cradle to the grave”, says Irarrázabal, but first Chile needs recycling infrastructure, a culture of recycling and adequate collection planning.

Cleaning up Easter Island

Even though recycling is incipient in Chile, some municipalities like Easter Island have partnered with recycling companies to reduce their waste.

In 2009, Chile’s largest steel recycling firm Gerdau Aza, a subsidiary of Brazil’s Gerdau group, signed an agreement with the Municipality of Easter Island to recycle the island’s scrap metal.

With 70,000 tourists annually, plus 4,000 permanent residents, generating around a kilo of rubbish each daily, the island is running out of room and illegal dumps are contaminating the water table.

“It’s the most isolated island in the world, which means waste disposal is a major issue,” explains Arturo Harlen, communications manager at Gerdau Aza.

Gerdau donated a waste compactor and in two years has removed 40 tons of scrap, mostly cars and broken appliances. Easter Island is the only part of Chile where cases of mosquito-borne Dengue have been reported, which means solid waste must remain in quarantine for at least six months, but the Chilean Navy ships the scrap to the port of Valparaiso free of charge.

“We are losing money on this venture, but we gain in many other areas that are immeasurable,” says Harlen.

Overall in Chile, 60% of scrap metal is recycled and around 20% of steel consumed is made from scrap. This is low by international standards – in the United States 52% of steel consumed comes from scrap, says Harlen – but this is changing as the public becomes more educated.

Clean Production Agreements

Other industries in Chile have much lower rates of recycling, especially products like tires, batteries and plastic. But the National Clean Production Council, a public-private initiative led by the Ministry of Economy, is working to change this by facilitating Clean Production Agreements (CPAs) with subsidies from Chile’s Economic Development Agency (CORFO).

“Today there is unfair competition because companies that don’t take responsibility for their waste have a lower cost than those that do,” says Jorge Morales, head of coordination of CPAs at the Council.

The green tax would create a level playing field, he says, because all companies would pay for waste management. But even without the law, some companies are investing in clean production as a matter of Corporate Social Responsibility.

For example, a CPA between 50 companies in the construction industry has created a new firm called Regemac, which is responsible for managing waste from building sites. Currently, around 35-45% of construction debris is recycled, mainly cardboard, metal, wood and plastic, but with greater economies of scale this could increase, says Álvaro Conte, Regemac’s general manager.

Transport, however, is a challenge. It accounts for around 60% of the cost of waste management and traffic, as well as the distance of building sites from landfills, has reduced Regemac’s efficiency, says Conte.

Outside major cities transport is more expensive since waste must be trucked to Santiago, Antofagasta or Concepción. “If your business is in Iquique or La Araucanía you have to go a long way,” points out Morales.

Another CPA formed by tire manufacturers including Goodyear, Pirelli and Michelin organizes the collection of used tires, which previously ended up in illegal dumps or were simply buried.

This agreement has given rise to a new business – making products from recycled rubber. Polambiente, a family business founded in 2010, receives the tires and processes them at its plant on the outskirts of Santiago.

“Recycling is not easy because it implies a change of habit, but we have overcome many obstacles,” says Lorena Torres, the company’s general manager.

The market was very small initially but has quadrupled in just two years. Currently, Polambiente makes synthetic turf for playing fields, but in the future it could make other products, says Torres. “We are permanently on the lookout for creative products that use recycled rubber, and we are open to innovation.”

Polambiente would consider exports, but unless companies pay for recycling Torres says it will be hard to compete with developed countries. ”There is no law in Chile, so we have to convince the companies one by one,” she says. “We’re in no-man’s land at the moment.”

The green tax would be a step forward, she notes, but it remains to be seen how the money raised will actually be spent. “We hope that within a year we will have a law that stimulates recycling in Chile.”

Waste-to-energy

Another part of the solution to Chile’s waste management problem is turning it into energy. This has the benefit that, unlike recycling, the market is well developed and the technology could pay for itself quickly.

“It’s nice to jump on the green bandwagon and say you’re saving polar bears and eagles but the bottom line is money,” says Carlos Hart, a managing partner at the Seattle-based industrial recycling firm Busy Beaver.

According to Hart, new technology is now focused on turning garbage into clean energy. “The ability to leapfrog the old business model and move right into energy production should make the recycling environment a great opportunity,” he says.

Last year, KDM Energía, another unit of the Urbaner-Dasser group, began operating a biogas project at the Loma Los Colorados landfill. The plant, which burns methane extracted from the landfill thereby reducing CO2 emissions, currently supplies 9 MW to Chile’s Central Interconnected System (SIC).

According to Verónica Martínez, an analyst at the Chilean Renewable Energies Center (CER), the project benefits from incentives under the Non-Conventional Renewable Energies Law and is an “attractive” investment at today’s high energy prices.

Biogas projects at other landfills, such as Santa Marta in Santiago, flare the gas and sell carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism, but do not generate energy.

Potential generation from landfills is estimated at around 50MW, which is a fraction of Chile’s energy needs, but if prices remain high more projects like Loma Los Colorados could be developed, says Martínez.

Meanwhile, some companies like forestry products manufacturer Arauco are supplying part of their energy needs by burning waste and selling the excess electricity to the grid. A new fund to be introduced by CORFO later this year will provide subsidies for these types of projects, says Martínez.

“Energy is one of the highest costs faced by industries in Chile and this could help reduce costs, especially for agroindustry firms,” she says.

Ultimately, waste management in Chile comes down to just that – costs. With recycling still expensive, converting biomass into fuel or electricity could be the best way for Chilean companies to make waste pay.

Recycling initiatives like Gerdau Aza’s Easter Island venture are good for public relations, but the benefits are hard to measure and, at any rate, these are isolated examples.

The Punto Limpio in Vitacura shows that when given an opportunity, consumers are willing to go out of their way to recycle. Whether they will also pay more for products that incorporate a green tax remains to be seen.

But, as Chile’s economy continues to grow, it will inevitably generate more waste and the cost of managing it responsibly must be borne by producers and consumers. It’s a bill Chileans must be prepared to pay now, or future generations will have to – with interest.