www.wasteventures.org
Dealing with informal waste scavenging in india, founder: Parag Gupta
A new platform for real-time coordination in the city. You register a set of cellphones on a server, and map their location in realtime. SMS notification / coordination is also possible.
http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/tswi-080301-catadores-redirectedAlthough there have been attempts by the municipal government to work with the organisedcatadores, it is an uneasy relationship - just last month, this area was the scene of ugly clashes with police as the authorities came to clean up the area and the catadores accused them of taking away material that they had collected and depriving them of their livelihoods.
Admittedly the area is unpleasant - I dodged a couple of dead rats as I walked through it. But according to another catador, Sergio Bispo, the problem would not arise if the catadores were given proper spaces in which to work: "If we spent a month on strike, the country would stop - I think the world would stop. Because the municipal governments in the big cities don't do selective collection, they wouldn't cope. It's us catadores who do it, with our handcarts, carrying stuff on our backs, on our heads, in bags. So the country would stop if we went on strike, one day it will happen, but not yet."
Rusty metal recycling carts line the streets of Vila dos Papeleiros. Miniature backyards and gated front porches are used as tiny recycling warehouses. At the edge of the neighborhood, the industrial streets off the Rua Voluntários da Pátria are filled with middleman recycling purchasers, called ferro velhos, to whom the catadores sell their products. The ferro velhos join forces to sell large amounts of recyclables to other middlemen or directly back to the industry, as well as material producers, who turn the products into new materials.
The ad-hoc system is an anomaly – a recycling success story among a sea of global debris. Brazil has few national recycling laws (the Brazilian Senate is still debating solid waste legislation that has been on the table for two decades), but nevertheless has achieved recycling levels close to those of countries like Japan and Germany, which mandate robust recycling.http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/cash_for_trash/
http://www.good.is/post/watch-the-trailer-for-waste-land-a-documentary-about-beauty-and-trash
Jardim Gramacho, outside of Rio, is the world's largest landfill. In a new documentary called Waste Land, Vik Muniz, a Brazilian-born, Brooklyn-based artist, returns to create portraits, made from the trash itself, of the so-called "catadores" who work there.
It looks like an interesting peek at a subculture you're not likely to be exposed to otherwise, a helpful reminder that we're creating incredible volumes of trash, and a nice example of the redemptive power of art.
http://colabradio.mit.edu/?p=4865
Posted September 1st 2010 at 12:19 pm by Caroline Brun
My first impression is that informal waste management is a complex issue in Brazil. Some argue that working on an inclusive policy is not the only option and another system, without informal waste-pickers, should be promoted in the future. But is there any choice now? Catadores exist because there is an economic opportunity for them, but also because they do not have a better option to survive. They contribute to reducing public waste quantity and increasing recycling. Only 1% of domestic waste is recycled through municipal collection system in Sao Paulo.
Yet, the dialogue to include waste-pickers in waste management and recycling policy seems to be locked. Part of the problem might be in the shadows: invisible individuals or groups taking profit from the current system. Part of the solution might be projecting light: understanding, mapping the system to identify or create opportunities for change.
“The whole city has been invaded by recycling bins,” he told me during a visit to the modest shack where he lives, across the street from one of Quito's largest landfills. “Hardly anything valuable arrives here these days. We don't get that much good material anymore.”
Manuel is a “recycler.” He works in a waste-sorting facility 8-10 hours per night, five or six days a week. He told me that, until recently, he used to earn between $75 and $100 a week, depending on how much material he managed to collect. (Plastic is the most valuable, followed by cardboard and metal.) His income dropped in half, he says, once recycling bins were introduced across the city of Quito little over a year ago.