A Year in Uruguay

Montevideo is a large modern city yet in every neighborhood you can hear the clip-clop of hooves on pavement. While the city's official recycling system gets little use, scavengers with horse-drawn carts recycle an extraordinary amount of material. A newspaper account said over 65% of the Ciudad Vieja's garbage moves by horsecart.

The scavengers make their rounds of the neighborhood dumpsters collecting all the recyclable materials. They gather huge bags of plastic bottles, bales of cardboard, and everything else that could possibly have value.

I'm told that years ago horsecarts were part of the official garbage collection system but the city government replaced them with a modern fleet of garbage trucks. Without other income options, the collectors continued on their own. When Uruguay suffered its economic crisis, more people entered this sector.

The horsecarts add a certain charm to Montevideo, but they complicate traffic and some scavengers leave mounds of garbage on the sidewalk after they've taken the recyclables. I feel sorry for the people, particularly the children, who earn their living in dumpsters.

Labels: informal sector, Uruguay