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Jul 5, 2005

"The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life." --Jane Addams

The Garbage Lady

Where others see garbage, Albina Ruiz sees opportunity. Twenty years ago, in a poor Peruvian neighborhood only half of the trash produced by its 1.6 million residents was processed by the municipality, causing serious health problems and a littered landscape. Ruiz developed a new model of waste management by helping small business people in the community to take charge of collecting and processing waste by providing them start-up capital and marketing schemes to entice families to use the service.