Waste & RecyclingNGO
Bogotá's Recyclers Say They Haul 1,200 Tonnes a Day Without Being Paid for Most of It
by Asociación Cooperativa de Recicladores de Bogotá (ARB) · HQ 🇨🇴 Colombia
0tonnes per day (midpoint of 1,200-1,500 claimed)Material collected daily by Bogotá recyclers, per ARB spokesperson Nohra Padillaas of 2024-07-24 · may be outdated
0peopleRecyclers in Bogotá, ARB estimateas of 2024-07-24 · may be outdated
The ARB is a cooperative association of Bogotá's recyclers, created in 1990 and led for years by Goldman Prize winner Nohra Padilla. Its spokesperson says the city's recyclers collect between 1,200 and 1,500 tonnes of material every day and that the ARB counts around 15,000 recyclers in Bogotá. It lobbies over the tariff system that pays recyclers for collection and has pushed back on abuses by organizations that bill without collecting. In 2026 its site tracks Decree 0271, which adds a social-protection network for recyclers, and its national partner ANR has publicly demanded that the government keep its commitments.