Argentina's cardboard book publishing a novel concept

The cardboard mountain has been gathered by collectors called Cartoneros who comb the streets of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires every night searching for discarded milk cartons and cardboard flour or potato chip packaging.

Cucurto and his co-workers turn the cardboard into book covers for their publishing company. “We're not elitist,” says the 36-year-old who is an author in his own right. “We print books we like. It might be a classic, a contemporary piece of literature or a text written by a teenager for the first time.”

Cucurto founded the cardboard book publishing company Eloisa Cartonera in 2003 together with his poet friend Fabian Casas. Eloisa is the name of a former flame, explains Cucurto. “Unfortunately nothing came of it. She only came to our offices once.”

However, the name did remain. The office and sales room are located in the poor district of La Boca, just one block away from Bonbonera football stadium where Diego Maradona once played with the Boca Juniors soccer team. “I'm not actually a Boca Juniors fan,” says Cucurto, “but we feel welcome here in the area.”

Eloisa Cartonera is a collective. Every weekend its 11 staff members share the income earned from book sales. Many of them are from La Boca and were unemployed, just like 47-year-old Roberto Caceres, who today is one of the most active authors the publishing house has. “I was lucky because Cucurto liked what I had written,” he says.

Many of Buenos Aires' Cartoneros also benefit from the cardboard book publishing company. Instead of the usual 20 cents they receive per kilogram of paper, Eloisa Cartonera pays them 25 cents for each sheet of cardboard they bring in.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email