Additional Component- Background Knowledge Book

          
           For this unit “From Trash to Treasure”, my biggest background research will have to surround the lessons on the creation of recycled books, called cartoneras. To begin this research, I spoke with one of my previous Spanish professors, who is known worldwide as one of the leading researchers of this theme of cartoneras. She provided me with a book that she edited that contains articles from other cartonera researchers, as well. After reading this book, I feel that I now have a lot of knowledge and concrete information about cartoneras and the recycling (or lack thereof) programs that are in place in South America, particularly Argentina and Peru.
            By reading this book, I learned more about some unemployed citizens in South America that make a living by rummaging through dumps and garbage cans in search of items that can be recycled. These workers, known as cartoneras because they collect mostly cardboard, push around their carts and collect any recyclable materials, then sell these items back to the government for very low prices, leaving them with limited income. Since the start of the economic crisis in South America in 2001, there have been several small, local publishing houses that have been created, including Eloísa Cartonera in Argentina and the Sarita Cartonera in Peru, that attempt to help these workers and provide the poorer classes with books. At these publishing sites, workers purchase cardboard from the cartoneras at a higher price (almost 3 times more) than they would receive if they sold it back to their government. The publishers then use this cardboard as the covers of books, and sell these recycled books at lower prices as a way to make literature and books accessible to all citizens, rather than just the rich who can afford the typically high priced books. This whole process of cartoneras represents my unit in the way that there are elements of each of the 3 R’s implemented throughout the making of the books.

Source:          Bilbija, K., & Carbajal, P.C. (2009). Akademia Cartonera: a Primer of Latin American Cartonera
                           Publishers. Madison, WI: Parallel Press.