Paper and Cardboard Collectors in Trolleys with Bollard Carts

The fieldwork that extended the length and breadth of the streets of Bogota was developed from the simple observation of the people who collect paper, cardboard and recyclable waste, and who use the "balineras" cart to transport these materials. Through this practice, I was able to realize - as any pedestrian would - that the bins cart is also the home of the cartonero. In July 1985, the observation became participative when we looked for the deposits of recyclable raw material near a place called by the people "the street of the Cartucho". For this reason, one of the most important spatial analysis nuclei of this work is this sector, one of the best known "ollas" in the city, located between 9th and 10th streets with 12th and 13th streets, in the Santa Inés sector, today the old center of Bogotá, in the process of rehabilitation. When we say "olla" we are talking about a sector abandoned by urban planning policies, which gradually became a sector for the sale of psychoactive substances.

Autorentext

Maria Teresa Salcedo Restrepo is an anthropologist from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She completed her M.A., M. Phil. studies in anthropology at Columbia University in NYC. She has been linked to the Social Anthropology Group of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, ICANH, for several years.