RECYCLING LIVES

Ciudad Saludable
Building Healthy Models for Cities  BY ALBINA RUIZ RÍOS

I HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING BORN IN THE sick from living in a garbage dump. Sin- share it with others.
jungle of Peru to campesino parents. gle, unemployed mothers made up our Ciudad Saludable was born as an
They were people of infinite wisdom first informal waste collector enterprises, instrument of change to build a commu-
from whom I learned many things in my so we were able to tackle unemploy- nity-based solid-waste management sys-
life: most importantly, to think of oth- ment along with unsanitary conditions. tem and to spread that model through-
ers and not to bow down to adversity. As The local enterprises collected and pro- out Peru and the world. Our program,
there was no university in my jungle, I cessed garbage, charging affordable fees Pro Reciclador, works with all actors in
moved to Lima at sixteen to study indus- and separating recyclables. At first it was the value chain of recycling, particularly
trial engineering and found myself amid tough to explain to neighbors that paying at the base of the pyramid, as the lowest
mountains of trash. In my world in the a fee for waste collection was better than income individuals are called. Recyclers
jungle we did not have trash. All leftovers treating diarrhea. But once we achieved receive assistance to form formal micro-
went to our animals and without know- this mindset change, there was no turn- enterprises and to implement recycling
ing it, my parents showed me how to re- ing back; families wanted waste collection programs in tandem with local govern-
cycle and live sustainably, even though because they knew it would improve their ments. They also gain access to com-
these terms did not become a part of my quality of life. While at the beginning it prehensive healthcare and financing
life until many years later. was just a simple, low-cost model making for their recycling operations, as well as
When I moved to Lima and discov- use of local resources and labor, we later contact with export companies to direct-
ered trash, I also discovered that it stays incorporated these informal waste collec- ly sell recycled materials. Through our
where the poor live. Why wasn’t trash tors into municipal waste management program Ciudadanía Ambiental, we also
collected in the human settlements systems, creating long-lasting change. work with schools to teach students and
where I resided? I hitched rides on gar-
bage trucks around the city to answer
this question for my thesis. I soon saw
that the trucks were unable to navigate What saddened me most was not the trash itself, but
the piles of garbage in the street or travel
up the hills where the poor lived, but the
the people living not only in it but from it, eking out a
limitations were not simply mechanical. living as garbage pickers.
Authorities claimed that those who live
in these places like to live in filth and
were unwilling to pay for services. Noth- I then joined Ashoka, a network of peo- parents about waste sorting and how to
ing could be further from the truth. My ple with innovative ideas, and discovered implement it in their everyday lives.
neighbors wanted to be clean and were my new vocation: social entrepreneur. I As Ciudad Saludable grew as an orga-
willing to pay for it, but at a fair price and discovered a world of many “crazy” people nization, we asked ourselves how many
when services were actually delivered. like me, social entrepreneurs around the years we would need to change the entire
(Corruption was another critical factor— globe that Ashoka selects and links in its world, city by city. We recognized that we
often contracted services showed up only supportive network, people who believe could never live the 500 years necessary
occasionally or never at all.) things can change and employ real solu- to do this, so we had to accelerate the pro-
What saddened me most was not the tions to problems. Ashoka and my peers cess. Instead of building new ciudades
trash itself, but the people living not only pushed and supported me to think about saludables, our goal became to promote
in it but also from it, eking out a livelihood replicating my idea for greater impact. I other change makers who would adopt
as garbage pickers. That’s when I started had long rejected founding my own orga- the model of Ciudad Saludable and make
to develop a program now known as Ciu- nization because of fears that leading an it their own. We shifted from managing
dad Saludable (Healthy City). From the organization would take me out of the programs to working for system change.
very beginning, I knew we had to involve field, but Ashoka showed me I was sitting When we formed our first recycling
them in the solution, particularly poor on an idea that could be helping cities association in Peru in 1998, we didn’t
single mothers whose children often got around the world; I had to open up and dream that one day we would see hun-

REVISTA.DRCLAS.HARVARD.EDU  ReVista 29
GARBAGE

Above: Albina Ruiz (right) talks with recycler; Opposite page, from top left, clockwise: Workers sort garbage in a collection center; A woman
empties recycled materials in a collection center; Vacationers play an educational game about recycling trash on a Peruvian beach.

dreds of these organizations across Latin istered incentives program that brought neur to entrepreneur. Even though her
America. But then we realized replica- formalized recycling programs to 205 early death took her from us, her legacy
tion itself was not enough to truly change Peruvian municipalities in 2013. of well-trained and motivated colleagues
the status quo. We had to change the My dream is that all other develop- continues her work. We are encouraged
system by influencing public policy on ing countries would have comprehen- to see that around Peru and in a number
inclusive waste management and build- sive, sustainable and inclusive waste of other countries, opportunities contin-
ing alliances with public and private management systems involving those ue to grow for families like Sonia’s with
institutions. We learned how to dialogue living at the base of the economic pyra- the increasing adoption of integrated
with politicians and business leaders, but mid and strengthening the value chain solid-waste management programs.
most importantly, how to empower our of recycling; we will achieve that when However, we know we have quite a way
own neighbors in recycling collectives everyone in the process becomes an to go until people truly see garbage as an
to join us in being change makers. We actor of change. I remember the night I opportunity instead of a problem.
formalized this new outlook in our pro- met Sonia Quispe Taco and her mother
gram Basura Cero (Trash Zero), which opening trash bags in the center of Lima Albina Ruiz Ríos is a Peruvian envi-
promotes technical and legal norms to collect food for their pigs. Sonia lis- ronmentalist and social entrepreneur.
at various levels of the public sector, tened intently when I told her we were Founder and leader of Ciudad Saludable,
develops sustainable and inclusive solid- establishing a recycler collective. After she is a Schwab Foundation fellow of
waste management plans and created a becoming a devoted recycler and col- the World Economic Forum, an Ashoka
post-graduate program in solid-waste lective leader, she later opened her own Fellow and a Skoll Foundation social
management through the Universidad business, Ecomanos, which makes art entrepreneur. She received her Ph.D. in
Católica. This new focus resulted in the from recycled paper. She was very ner- Chemistry from Ramon Llull University
first law regulating recycling activity vous about her meeting with the man- in Barcelona, Spain.
passed in the world, Law 29419 in Peru ager of an upscale Lima art gallery, but
in 2009, and we are working with other she called me afterwards, so excited that Leah Scott-Zechlin, an intern for
countries to replicate this achievement. they had invited her to a glass of wine to the Ashoka Globalizer, contributed to
We also helped roll out a publicly admin- discuss the final agreement, entrepre- this article.

30  ReVista  WINTER 2015 PHOTOS COURTESY OF CIUDAD SALUDABLE

 RECYCLING LIVES

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