Cemase Plant Visit

Cemase Blog

When we were told that Pepsi was unable to host us today and that we would be visiting a “waste management” company, many of us thought, no thanks I’ll pass. The majority of us came to an immediate conclusion that this visit would be muy sucio, or very dirty, for lack of better words. However, many of us realized that we would be experiencing more than just stench. Cemase is a company management company that was created in 1977 to help solve Argentina’s pollution problems due to high volumes of trash. They handle 22,000 tons of waste a day, which makes up 40% of all waste in Argentina. Cemase is partly owned by the government and partly owned by the city of Argentina. They have about 1,200 total employees, and they have disposed 48 million tons of trash. They are continuously innovating technology to come up with effective ways to dispose of waste properly. Their main goal is to educate all of Argentina about correctly disposing of waste by offering free tours and educational sessions. We began our tour by learning about the company and their three main methods of how they dispose of waste.

First, we learned about how they make tires into reusable materials. This plant is called, “Planta de reciclado RA nuematicos” and the process extracts the rubber from tires to be melted and produce other goods, such as paint. Next we learned about how the recycle plants, branches, and trees. This process is completed at their “Planta de recuperadora de residuos verdes,” which is where they take waste from branches and leaves and they make chipping from it. Once created, they donate the chilling to schools or other complexes that need it. Finally, we learned about how to treat the trash that is collected from dumpsters around the city of Buenos Aires. This process is done at the “Planta de tratamiento mecánico biológico,” and the main objective here is to separate recycled materials, waste materials, and organic materials from one another. The biggest challenge with this process is the contamination between recycled materials and non recyclable materials. For example when a banana peel contaminated card board then it is hard to recycle the cardboard.

After being educated about how the company operates, we were given bright yellow vests and green helmets. This surprisingly made many of us happy and we took fun pictures together. Then we began the tour. The company aims to put the decomposed waste back into the ecosystem, resulting in many different animals living on the site. There are cows, donkeys, birds, and even peacocks on site. The fields are beautiful and not smelly. It was during this time when we all realized that the plant was doing a lot to benefit the environment. For our generation, sustainability is very important to us. Many people appreciated the beauty of what the company aims to do and looked past a few interesting scents.