In a video produced by ARB and supported by WIEGO, Silvio Ruiz Grisales, a Colombian recycler, spoke about the continued fight for the right to waste management in Bogotá after the ousting of Mayor Gustavo Petro. “We need to unite around a humane Bogotá, to fight for the rights we’ve already conquered. It’s the only administration that has implemented a decree from 2003 that gave recyclers their fundamental rights to work, to be compensated, and to continue to work in a dignified way. We will not give up the rights we’ve conquered. Every ton of cardboard we recover saves 20 trees that took 15 years to grow. We save energy, water, and we save renewable and non-renewable prime materials…We will continue contributing towards our objective of separation at source and Zero Waste. We will continue being supported by the community and fight for inclusive public policies. If we don’t unite around justice and reason and truth, we will be condemned to disappear, to be enslaved. Today they take away our waste, tomorrow it will be our water, and then our air.”
Tweet