Lollapalooza Argentina: Rock & Recycle

Argentina certainly knows a thing or two about rock. As far as music festivals go, Porteños, inhabitants of Buenos Aires, are up there with the best when it comes to putting on a good show.

The weekend before last, Lollapooloza Argentina, only the second one to be held in BA, lived up to expectations. With a top notch line-up - from Jack White, former lead singer and guitarist of White Stripes, and UK-rock band Kasabian to Pharell Williams, the mood was unquestionably happy. Over two days, San Isidro hippodrome, in the north of the city, was heaving with rocksters, from tots being ferried around on their parents’ shoulders to 60-year old hippies.

While Porteños can be counted upon to rock their hearts out, what they’re not so good at is the other word beginning with R – recycle. Many northern Americans and Europeans complain that us Brits are green luddites, which may be fair game, but I’ve been horrified with the amount of litter in BA.

A few weekends ago we were walking around Puerto Madero, a wonderful waterfront regeneration project in central BA, when we saw a woman litter the pavement with foam packaging. Even worse, she encouraged her son to do the same. Not quite the look that Puerto Madero hopes to portray I’m sure, but sadly so many Porteños do it.

I’m not exactly an eco-warrior but even I get upset about rubbish strewn everywhere. The biggest challenge, however, is educating people about green policies and changing attitudes. 

St George's College (where my husband Alistair teaches), for example, is a forward-looking institution and has set up an ESD (education for sustainable development) committee, which Alistair now heads. As many as 80 kids are involved and are committed to recycling and separating rubbish appropriately. The problem though, is when the council comes along to collect the rubbish and simply puts it all back together again. 

 

The paper paradox

Funnily enough in some ways Porteños are green do-gooders because of this strange situation where inflation reached 40% last year (someone please explain how this works). Therefore, prices of goods tend to rise incrementally throughout the year, not least that of paper.

In institutions or workplaces paper is guarded for dear life. Photocopying appears a lucrative business in Argentina, with shops dedicated to just that. At St George’s College, the photocopying machine is locked away in a special room that can only be opened by the keeper of the key. Hikes in photocopying charges can easily push department budgets into the red by the end of the academic year.

On the other spectrum, I had a full roll of kitchen roll at the start of the day (I’m not overly precious about kitchen roll but it’s paper all the same) only to find that it had disappeared by the afternoon. The only person who had been in was the cleaner. Maybe she had stolen it (although I’m sure pocketing some loose pesos would have been more profitable). Anyhow it had transpired that she had used an entire roll to wipe the backdoor windows.

“The poor trees,” I said. She looked at me blankly. She hadn’t known that paper came from trees.

From festivals to cleaning windows, Lollapooloza Argentina was not just a great musical experience, but also a marvellous initiative for encouraging and making it easy for people to recycle their waste. Unfortunately, only plastic is being recycled, but for now that’s enough to make me happy.