Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Recyclers Demand Wages

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 6 2003 (IPS) - The informal recyclable waste collectors of Curitiba, capital of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, are demanding that the city pay for the public service they perform in gathering 360 tons of garbage a day. This represents 70 percent of the paper, plastic, glass and other recyclable waste that the 1.6 million inhabitants of Curitiba throw out each day, Margaret Matos de Carvalho, coordinator of the state Citizen and Waste Forum, told Tierramérica.

Wages would not be paid to individuals but would be collected in a fund to benefit the waste collectors and their families, Matos said.

If they are successful in obtaining payment, it could serve as a model to benefit the hundreds of thousands of workers who pick up the waste on city streets throughout Brazil. In Curitiba, there could be 5,000 to 20,000 people who are sustained by this informal work