Challenges and Opportunities for Collectors of Recyclable Materials in the Municipality of Guajará-Mirim / Rondônia: A visualization based on the Ucinet tool (original) (raw)

The difficulties of solid waste collectors carrying out selective collection in the city of Manaus, Brazil

RECIMA21 - Revista Científica Multidisciplinar, 2023

This study described collectors' main difficulties in collecting discarded materials in Manaus (Brazil). The method used involved analyzing the practice of three collectors willing to provide in-depth data and information obtained through semi-structured interviews carried out in the respondents' workplaces, which were then analyzed with the help of the conceptual bibliographic method and interpreted with the help of semantic analysis. The results showed that a) the main difficulties are extreme physical exertion, people's rejection, unhealthy working conditions, lack of personal protective equipment, and lack of participation by people, companies, and governments; b) difficulties occur due to lack of equipment, lack of technical knowledge of the materials handled, people's lack of knowledge about the importance of the collectors' work and lack of participation by society and governments in the selective collection; c) who could help to minimize these difficulties are the residents, companies, and governments and d) what the agents can do is to structure the collection (government), separate the materials (residents), provide more disposal sites (town hall) and donation of equipment and training (companies). The conclusion shows that agents are not prepared to carry out reverse logistics in the city because they are unaware of the importance of waste pickers' work to start the city's circular economy.

Analysis of the Recycling Sector in Intermediate Cities. Study Case – Neiva, Colombia

INGENIERÍA Y COMPETITIVIDAD, 2020

The economic activity of recycling belongs to an unfortunate and marginalized segment of society in Colombia. This fact translates in high rates of informality and a general perception about people that work in this activity, which come usually from extreme poverty, burdened by discrimination, drug addiction, and rejection. The goal of this research was to determine the most significant factors impacting levels of society and economics. For this purpose, we carried out a mixed analysis in the chain of the recycling sector in Neiva, an intermediate city. Because of the informality of waste pickers’ union, official information and field survey were conducted to identify the waste commercialization establishments. The collection and transportation process were identified, and a survey was applied to 50 waste pickers and ten recycling companies. Seventy-two percent of the population is constituted by male gender, older than 25 years, in an unsafe condition, and with labor intensity of 8...

Recycling programs in partnership with scavenger associations as a sustainability factor in Metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

The aim of this research was to evaluate waste recycling programs in partnership with scavenger associations in Metropolitan São Paulo, to verify their social, economic, sanitary, and environmental impacts in a sustainability perspective. Methods included bibliographical and data research and structured interviews with representatives of 39 municipalities. The analysis of factors responsible for program continuity was undertaken. It was found that among 39 municipalities, 23 (59%) have developed official recycling programs, 19 in partnership with scavenger associations. Indicators analysed showed that the programs resulted in social, and economic gains for scavengers, increased social capital and they contributed to the reduction of waste destined for landfills. However, there are competition factors that have been threatening the continuity of those programs. Keywords: recycling, sustainability, domestic waste, waste management, scavenger, São Paulo, Brazil, association, municipali...

Countercycling : an ethnographic study of waste, recycling, and waste-pickers in Curitiba, Brazil

2013

This thesis is a sociological investigation on the recycling of urban waste. It is based on fieldwork carried out in the Brazilian city of Curitiba. The author used a combination of interviews, analyses of quantitative data, and participant observation to understand the work and modes of organisation of informal collectors of recyclables in this city. Curitiba is known in Brazil as the “first-world capital” and, in the world of urban planning, as a “model city” or an “ecological capital city”. These encomiums result in part from Curitiba’s ground-breaking recycling campaigns and systems of waste collection, sorting, and commercialisation. However, the city’s model image hides an army of urban poor and circuits of informal transactions that actually do most of the recycling work. These informal infrastructures are mostly responsible for the city’s official recycling rates, which are comparable to those of the most recycle-minded European cities. The main objective of this research pr...

Participatory sustainable waste management project in Brazil

Knowledge, democracy and action, 2019

People who live off materials recovered from the waste stream exist in every corner of the world. However, these recyclers are among the most exploited and socially and economically excluded people. Recyclers face enormous stigmatization, discrimination and marginalization. This project was established to focus on participatory waste management as an opportunity to generate income and to improve the quality of life of informal recyclers (called catadores in Brazil), while promoting environmental sustainability and inclusive public policies on integrated waste management. The project recognizes the immense potential in the work of recyclers to improve environmental health, assist in the recovery of resources and, through capacity building and participatory processes, to empower recyclers to contribute to public policy, environmental and social change. Project partners recognized that, when working individually, recyclers were forced to sell their product through middlemen who buy at very low prices and then resell to industry at a much higher rate. However, with support from the project, several groups of recyclers have established themselves as cooperatives. This has enabled them to pool their resources, avoiding middlemen, and to sell directly to industry. The results have been manifold: increasing the amount of recyclable material recovered from the waste stream; increasing wages for organized recyclers; increasing their bargaining power; and contributing to safer working conditions. The main project objectives were:

Characterization of the urban solid waste collection chain and reverse logistics in the municipality of Barretos- SP (Atena Editora)

Characterization of the urban solid waste collection chain and reverse logistics in the municipality of Barretos- SP (Atena Editora), 2022

The increase in population and consequent increase in consumption of products has generated a significant increase in problems arising from solid waste. In order to deal with this problem, society has created laws and instruments. The objective of this article is to describe and analyze the current solid waste collection chain in the municipality of Barretos-SP, in order to identify measures to improve the process aimed at the circular economy, thus proposing the project contract. The work is qualitative in nature, by applied purpose, descriptive depth, as the source of documentary and field data, and quasi-experiment design. From a questionnaire and bibliographic research, it was possible to identify that, although there is no regular selective collection, the collection chain is being structured. In view of the facts, the improvement project was prepared as a suggestion to operationalize the process of the selective collection and reverse logistics chain in the city, aiming at the concept of circular economy and population awareness through environmental education.

Assessment of the Current Situation of Informal Recyclers and Recycling: Case Study Bogotá

Sustainability, 2019

The contribution of recyclers to the environment and the local economy is not recognized and they are not remunerated for the service they provide to the city. It is well known that informal collection contributes to the recycling of resources in a positive way, but it is also associated with several environmental, health, and social problems. In Colombia, these recyclers work informally. In 2016, Decree 596 was issued, which regulates the utilization of the public cleaning service and the transitory regime for the formalization of informal recyclers. The objective of this work is to evaluate the social and technical impact of recycling in the city of Bogotá three years after the regulations were issued. A study was carried out in order to study how recyclers have been affected by the new regulations after three years of validity as well as understand their perceptions of the evolution of recycling in the city. The study consisted of a series of surveys of recyclers from a statistic...

THE INCOME FROM THE GARBAGE: A CASE STUDY ON THE COLLECTION AND SELECTION OF RECYCLABLE SOLID WASTE A RECEITA QUE VEM DO LIXO: ESTUDO DE CASO SOBRE A COLETA, SELEÇÃO E RECICLAGEM DE LIXO DOMÉSTICO

This article describes the planning process, collection, distribution, selection, and compression into bales of household solid waste of the city of Jaraguá do Sul in southern Brazil. Background information was obtained in the company responsible to perform the selective collection, in the Cooperative and Association of Collectors, and the company that sells the separated and compressed / crushed material to the industry. A survey was carried out in the programs created by public agencies to raise awareness among the population about the importance of the selection of household waste. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured and non-participant observation. From the analysis of results it can be concluded that the lack of training of association members and cooperated personnel, due to their low educational level, may explain the absence of planning. It is also possible to affirm that the municipal government has developed programs to raise the awareness of the population, but there is still a little response by the people living that county.

Recycling Analysis in Northern city in the State of Rio de Janeiro: A Study of Reverse Logistics

This work analyzes the recycling process of the PET bottle in a company located in Campos dos Goytacazes, - a northern city in the state of Rio de Janeiro, from the concept of reverse logistics. It was sought, through qualitative research with the company to know the process of recycling the PET bottle and its understanding as a contribution to the environmental issue. Visits were made to the company for a period of one month, alternating times during work hours, observing since the arrival of the material collected in the streets until the end of the recycling process, together with the visits carried out was applied a questionnaire with the company's employees in order to measure their understanding of the recycling process. It was developed the process flowchart and the mapping, aiming to allow not only to know the sequence of the process developed, but also to analyze it in terms of strengths and weaknesses. After data collection, it was verified that, with regard to the production process, the employees performed their tasks empirically, knowing only the stage of the process by which they were responsible, and they and the company had no formal procedure to demonstrate the sequential steps involved in the recycling process.

Developing urban waste management in Brazil with waste picker organizations

Environment and Urbanization, 2011

In Brazil's large cities, more than half a million people survive by collecting and selling solid waste. Most face very poor working conditions and have very low incomes as the intermediaries to whom they sell pay low prices. Their activities are even considered illegal in some nations. But the waste pickers save city governments money, contribute to cleaner cities and reduce the volume of waste that has to be dumped (by up to 20 per cent). After describing the waste pickers and the city and national associations they have created, this paper describes the recycling industry and gives some examples of better methods of recycling. These include waste picker cooperatives that can sell the materials they collect direct to industries and that have partnerships with city governments who provide access to wastes, better prices and facilities to improve working conditions (including transferring the recycling from dumps to recycling centres).