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According to Peru’s National Institute of Statistics, 39.3 percent of Peru’s population live in poverty. Jobs are scarce. The Peruvian government generally does a poor job of collecting trash and there is almost no formal recycling in the country. Garbage is just placed on the streets of Peru in whatever kind of plastic bag is available. In the capital city of Lima, where approximately one third of Peru’s 28 million people live, residents take out the trash on a daily basis. In other cities, it also generally is a fairly regular activity. So, with a regular supply of garbage, an organized industry of black market recycling has erupted.
For an American like myself, it was an odd and uncomfortable feeling when I first saw people digging through my trash, pulling out empty soda bottles, cans, and other items that might be of use. I began to wonder why this was occurring, so I asked my wife who is Peruvian to explain. She described initially that “it was a job” and that many people in Peru were happy just to have one. Next she said that the plastic bottles and other items were sometimes sold to businesses that would sometimes refill the bottles and containers with unsanitary water, phony liquids, fake pharmaceutical substances, and other cheap impostors. These fake items are then sold to Peru’s poor, or to the general public by stores that choose not to monitor that their suppliers are legitimate.
Sounds bad, right? Well, as I wrote earlier, it’s not that simple.
There is also the issue of child labor. An estimated 2.3 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 work in Peru, almost a third of that demographic. Many of them collect trash. Click here to read the story of Diego, a 13-year-old trash collector. One can only guess that sifting through garbage pounds a heavy psychological and physical toll on much of Peru’s youth.
For an American like myself, it was an odd and uncomfortable feeling when I first saw people digging through my trash, pulling out empty soda bottles, cans, and other items that might be of use. I began to wonder why this was occurring, so I asked my wife who is Peruvian to explain. She described initially that “it was a job” and that many people in Peru were happy just to have one. Next she said that the plastic bottles and other items were sometimes sold to businesses that would sometimes refill the bottles and containers with unsanitary water, phony liquids, fake pharmaceutical substances, and other cheap impostors. These fake items are then sold to Peru’s poor, or to the general public by stores that choose not to monitor that their suppliers are legitimate.
Sounds bad, right? Well, as I wrote earlier, it’s not that simple.
There is also the issue of child labor. An estimated 2.3 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 work in Peru, almost a third of that demographic. Many of them collect trash. Click here to read the story of Diego, a 13-year-old trash collector. One can only guess that sifting through garbage pounds a heavy psychological and physical toll on much of Peru’s youth.
Excerpt from Article
I feel like all the black market recycling should be watched much more closely. There is a lot of things wrong with these corporate companies polluting, but just look at some of these pictures from this National Geographic Article.
Do you think anyone can ever regulate or reverse what has been done to 3rd world countries and the environment? I don't think there is a way to reverse what humans have screwed up..
. I think what is happening in Peru is necessary for it to survive. Peru is in deep trouble economically and is reaching all time lows because of the lack of a central industry. This means that there is no such thing as capital freedom and they have no way of establishing any type of market over the area in the near future. The residents of Peru are only being human in doing what is needed to survive. Te so called black market is actually a pretty good thing right now because people need jobs and trash can be considered a good resource as it is fundamentally never ending. 