About 600 thousand Brazilians collect 90% of recyclable materials recovered, according to data from the corporate commitment to recycling (Cempre), an organization that brings together companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever or Gerdau.
These workers, who have in their hands the success and future of recycling in the country, collect the recycling from the streets of cities or the dumpsters in the country, according to the Ipea (Institute of applied economic research).
"Most of the work is carried out by recycling them. Scavengers play a role of immense strategic value for the industry, in addition to providing an important environmental service by which are little valued, "explained to National Geographic Brazil Albino Rodrigues Alvarez, technical planning and research of the Ipea.
By "environmental services unappreciated", Albino Alvaraz aims to explains that each maker takes home per month, less than € 195 ($ 600). Still, these workers were recognised by the Brazilian solid waste Policy (PNRS) as important agents for the implementation of the recycling processes.
According to the Ipea, only 10% of collectors belong to cooperatives. It would be a good news that this percentage would increase, since the monthly income of a maker of a cooperative may be between €260 ($ 800) and €420 ($ 1,300), maximum value reached in São Paulo.
In Brazil, according to Cempre, in 2012, the market turnover of sorting and collection of recyclables generated R $ 712,3 million (€231 million), but only $ 56.4 million (18.4 million) â€" 8% of the total-was with cooperatives. The remainder was concentrated in the hands of wholesalers.
A better way to distribute these resources is being put into practice in Sao Paulo, in which some cooperatives for failing to verticalize space or incorporate other chains to the process, began to organise themselves into networks. In the case of Cooper Glycerius, Bishop. "In addition to creating a territorial capillarity in selective collection, [that] lets you share more efficient operational technology such as presses and sorting mats, and social technology, such as the Organization of a cooperative model better structured, which becomes a polo diffuser", explained Mário Agrawal, a professor of management and project Advisor of technology incubator of popular cooperatives of Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV)from São Paulo.
Although it is difficult that a city recycle 100% of its rubbish, this is the objective for 2020 of the city of San Francisco, California, United States. The goal doesn't seem unreachable, since, at the moment, about 83% of the solid wastes are reused. But, according to Kevin Drew, Environment Program Coordinator of the American city, Brazil has a large advantage to achieve this quickly: the pickers.
"If their experience is leveraged and better remunerated by the important environmental service they provide, cities like São Paulo can recycle 100% of the dry fraction of junk even before us, [San Francisco," he explained.
Photo: Milton Jung's Blog/Creative Commons
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