I believe that when I was in my dear mother's womb
I started picking up garbage in the Canabrava dump in Bahia.
Many times, collecting, I didn't have what to eat, so we would…
Trucks would arrive and unload a bunch of residue
and we would end up eating the leftovers of the leftovers.
Then the landfill closed, I went to Salvador and continued picking up trash.
Sometimes walking around the center of Salvador I would see some famous stores.
And walking past one of them I saw an ad that really grabbed my attention.
Some people were sitting down for breakfast. The "margarine family".
And I said to myself: "What's this margarine family all about?"
I saw everyone sitting down: the dad, mom, children…
"Be happy. Eat margarine."
I thought to myself: "What's this margarine family all about? Sitting around the table, with wife, kid..."
I want to have all of this.
And then I heard of a city called São Paulo.
Where families can be made, where money can be earned.
And that's how my story started.
80 days walking and hitchhiking.
On the road I could see how full of prejudice and violence society is.
I arrived here in 1989, lived on the streets for a while
I suffered a lot and started gleaning
And that's life.
In São Paulo we are approaching a population of around 11 million citizens
and we produce 20 thousand tons of residues each day.
Of course, much of it is waste and cannot be reused,
but an expressive amount is just a big squander of money.
50% of the residues are organics, such as food leftovers
and a bit over 30% are recyclable residues. Dry residues.
paper, glass, metals and plastics.
People think that Brazil is already a green country.
And it is because they look at the amount of recycled cans which is 98.6%.
But who recycles these cans: The Brazilian government or the collectors who are responsible for 90% of this?
80% of everything that reaches the industrial recycling chain comes from the hands of these collectors.
This is an undeniable fact.
I've been working with recycling for 15, 16 years.
Imagine how many tons I've collected.
15 years, how many tons? And that's just me.
Now imagine all of us, because there are many.
I'm from Teotônio Vilela, Alagoas.
I used to work on the farm with my dad.
I stayed there unemployed until I was 18.
Then was getting very weary of it all…
So I decided to come look for a job in São Paulo.
I'm from Catanduva, country side of São Paulo.
I'm from Cachoeirinha.
I'm from Paraiba.
I ran away from Maceio to come here.
Nova Iguaçu, Baixada Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro).
I'm a weaver, a metallurgic…
But there aren't any jobs. There aren't any jobs. There aren't any jobs.
I came here looking for a better life. A better life. A better life.
I'm actually a mason.
I used to work at a car wash.
I worked as a housemaid, as a cook.
I used to own an auto parts store.
I was made in Bahia, but born in Bauru.
I'm from Piauí.
I was born in Bahia. In Bahia. In Bahia.
From Maranhão.
Ceará.
In Bahia.
From Piaui.
From Maranhão.
Ceará.
In Bahia.
From Piauí.
There aren't any jobs.
I used to be a cleaning lady.
There aren't any jobs.
A better life.
I had a few friends who used to work with recycling.
Then one day they invited me.
I quit my job to work with recycling.
I started working with my wagon in 1986.
It's worth it because I'm my own boss.
I was receiving my unemployment benefits after I asked to leave the plant I worked at…
And then a position opened to work here in the junkyard.
Then I started removing stuff from the streets, liked the streets, and continued to work there.
Then I bought a wagon.
I was recently divorced, drinking too much…
I borrowed a wagon and I'm on the streets pulling until today.
I had a friend who lived here and used to work as a housemaid.
So she brought me here so I could also work as a housemaid.
But the family was really annoying. So on my days off and at night I would pick up cans off the streets.
I've been working with recycling for more than 13 years and I raise all my kids through it.
I have to count with my fingers because there are so many children, I lose count.
In total there are 12, but two of those are from an abandoned mother, so I adopted them.
I was 55 at the time.
I said to my wife: "if I can't get a job at 56, I'm going to start collecting cardboard on the streets to recycle." And so I went.
Even I've collected cardboard once.
We used to get cans, fill them up with dirt to weigh more and then go sell them at the junkyard. Wet the cardboards also, to weigh more.
It's hard being poor in the slums. We have to make money by any means.
Today 80% of the Brazilian population lives in city.
And these cities weren't planned for so many people.
The scavengers come from this world.
They didn't use to exist in the countryside because there weren't that many recyclable materials.
But when you have this modern life with lots of consumerism,
You create a series of disposables.
The profession of collecting recyclable material is very old.
You use to have that man who would walk around the streets of São Paulo with a bag on his back, collecting recyclable materials in order to provide for their needs.
That person, in the old city, that they called the man with the bag. To scare the kids they would say:
"if you don't do this we're going to hand you to the man with the bag".
The people that live with recycling have been suffering social exclusion for years.
The problem isn't only lack of labor. The problems come from poorly structured families.
The problems come from bad basic education and a real lack of care from the public bodies.
Here I have my wife and my dogs. And I have to leave her somewhere.
I have to leave her somewhere safe with the dogs so that I can go out with the wagon.
I have everything here. A stove, a gas cylinder, all these things…
I sleep with some friends under my wagon.
We have a calm and quiet place…
I became homeless when I was 11 years old.
I had some family issues so I decided to take care of my own life.
The streets teach you many things. Good and bad.
One thing it teaches you is how to defend yourself.
Because I didn't have any money, I didn't study, I had no way of working…
Everyone has their own work area.
Mine is always Armenia. I don't pickup in this region here because if I do, I'll be disrupting the work of whoever works and lives here.
The collectors from this area.
So I made a pact with the collectors that don't have a wagon.
Everything that's on the streets is theirs to collect. I only get the material from stores.
I've been able to put up to 600kg in this wagon.
Sometimes you can't even get a load catching the small amount that's thrown out.
So you have to have luck.
I've once put 530kg in it.
Depends on the day.
But since I also do carriages, it varies.
You can find many things in the residue.
Some nice things.
You find clothes, some objects. And you end up finding
a human fetus in the middle of it. That's bad, isn't it?
Imagine, you open up a bag and see a child, a life there.
Why was it thrown there? And we start to think:
Because someone didn't have the proper conditions to raise it?
The system…Unfortunately the system forces this to happen.
But one day I opened up a bag and I saw some folded bills. Red and blue.
I found Euro. Even euro people are throwing away!
Even Euro.
Keep throwing it because we'll find it!
Look, from recycling. A lot of CDs, all working.
Found a lot of cell phone chargers. A whole bag.
We find furniture, cell phones…
When a collector rescues something from the trash,
it receives a new meaning based on the fact that it will be personally useful or will be able to generate income to guarantee his survival.
Why is something disposed here and valued elsewhere?
Look at our own houses, the amount of cell phones we have that were good that we disposed of because a new one accesses another network. You go to slums and you see a 29" plasma TV on the wall, but the person doesn't have a stove.
Ends up cooking on firewood… And the collectors are not different.
Unfortunately society only thinks about money.
In order to be successful in life you have to have a nice car, wear nice brand named clothing…
The fact is, there's an inevitable moment for everyone that purchases something
where the satisfaction generated by the purchase vanishes.
If this ends up creating residue, it's due to a much bigger process.
An average consumer, which attends shopping centers and spends all of his salary buying goods, has no idea of the socio-environmental consequences that he is causing.
Because Brazil is rich in natural resources, but one day they will come to an end.
The street collector has one of the most dignified professions available in our society.
Not only do they clean our city, they also assist the preservation of our environment.
The collectors have developed a social technology for collecting, going in homes,
they pick up the material, contact the residents, and teach them about the environment. Things that the local government doesn't do.
And many companies don't either.
The main parties responsible for waste sorting and collecting are the collectors.
And it's that famous pyramid that we always talk about.
Where we who work more gain less.
How many landfills would we have to have for this garbage that wouldn't be recycled?
Today we know how important this is, we pay a huge tax in Brazil
and we don't see anything happening.
So while this recycling scheme doesn't exist, we have to respect and give space in order to let the collectors work freely.
Today we collect, contribute with the environment, with public authority…
… And society as a whole.
Look at the importance, without realizing, that we collectors have.
Generating jobs and income. That's why it has to e a professional category,
recognized for our value and not with prejudice.
The collectors have many dramatic stories.
We have to look at them with a lot of love.
Many could have been a big problem to society, but instead they've become a solution that unfortunately the world doesn't recognize.
A lot of people like to complain when there's a flood, for example, that there's garbage on the streets.
But when they see a collector in front of their house they also don't like it.
They're taking garbage off the streets.
Avoiding floods.
In other words, people want them to collect the garbage, but far from their sight.
I think people have to be more sensitive about this issue.
Because if it wasn't for the collector, removing people's trash from the streets, they wouldn't be able to walk.
There would be so much garbage piled up that they wouldn't be able to drive around in their nice cars.
This is a deposit where people bring what they've collected.
Everything is recyclable.
We buy it from them at a price so that we can sell it for a bit more.
Copper is generally worth more.
But it's hard to find copper, so iron ends up being the best find.
Each day I can earn around R$100/R$ 150… Enough to buy milk for the kids.
If it's a bad day I earn around R$40/R$50.
R$35.
With only cardboard.
On this one walk we just did.
I can earn R$ 300 per day
Some days you can't find anything.
This job gives a lot of money.
Around R$900,00/R$1.000.
An average would be around R$40 per day.
Which gives you R$10 for lunch, R$10 for dinner, R$5 for breakfast and R$ 10/R$15 for the next day.
In this bag I have a lot of recyclable materials, like wood and rubble.
But no one in this area buys this.
So we normally throw the stuff that's recyclable and that we can't sell in this Eco point.
I'm not taking anything from anybody and I earn little, but honestly.
Everything that I earn is for family and for my house, so that they don't suffer.
My kids are growing up and I told them: "Don't be like your father. Go study in order to be something in life because picking stuff up isn't very good, son".
Look at my hand; it's all cut from recycling. - I also always get hurt.
Glass, iron that cuts, I have three crippled fingers. - I have a damaged leg as well.
It hurts, because sometimes you go pick up a can in a bag and there's glass there.
Pulling the wagon isn't easy.
If you don't know how to control it a wheel can hit your foot and the whole wagon can fall on you.
I've even hit a car once. I'm still paying.
I had more than 600kg of iron.
But I was going downhill pretty fast.
The guy in front of me breaks short.
And I didn't have how to break. My wagon doesn't have breaks.
By the time I tried to stop the wagon hit the car full force and made a whole in it.
I'm paying R$350.
I was on the street Teodoro Sampaio ready to walk.
Then a car came with a distracted driver.
At the last moment a women yelled out "watch out for that car!"
So I was able to jump away, but the car smashed the wagon.
Traffic is complicated, but I always try to walk along the curb.
I work the right way; I don't like crossing avenues.
When I leave to go work I walk a lot. Sometimes I leave here,
I'll go to Vila Madalena, Pompéia, Cerro Corá, Vila Romana, Lapa…
I walk a lot.
I go to Heitor Penteado, Oscar Freire, Consolação…
Vila Madalena, Jardins, Faria Lima, all around these places.
Sometimes I make six, even seven rounds.
Sometimes ten, twelve trips…
I really walk a lot.
I believe that I walk around 30km each day.
They have many problems: back pains, orthopedics,
ergonomic problems, they carry too much weight, the wagons are really heavy.
A lot of problems on their hands and feet, they frequently have accidents with biological and contaminated material,
dirty material, that causes tetanus and infections.
If you walk every day, you won't be able to withstand five or six days in a row at the same pace.
It's very tiring because it's heavy; there are a lot of hills to go up and down…
One time I was carrying some iron and it was too heavy.
500kg of iron, I ended up with a hernia that I still have today.
I even have to operate it.
Sometimes when the sun is very hot our heads really hurt.
And did you know I have HIV?
I have HIV.
Have had it for around eight years and they won't retire me.
I've tried for the last three years, but when I get to end of the governmental process they neglect my request.
They say "you're strong, you can work…"
So I have to ask them: "You're going to let me die before approving my request?"
The loose collector works inhumanely, working with what used to be animal traction.
It's not fair that we still have in our city
people working on the streets like this.
If he doesn't have a structured environment, how is he going to start?
With a bag on his back?
How is he going to take a reasonable quantity with a bag on his back?
He's going to need a wagon, a cut car or something.
A van, so that he can carry a big enough load to earn something.
They earn around R$200, R$300, R$400 per month to support their family.
They can't keep living like this.
There is no human dignity.
I don't find it to be inhumane.
It's only inhumane when you are forced to do it.
I believe the wagon is part of the collector's identity.
It's an exhausting job that's disregarded by many. The invisibility issue alone is already a problem.
And the matter of disrespect, where people use and see them as an inferior member of society, is a major problem.
I was waiting at the crosswalk with my wagon when someone passes by on a motorcycle screaming:
"Move you son of a bitch!" I was just minding my own business.
I used to live in Diadema and we would gather the materials on the sidewalk. Sometimes people would leave a dance club at night
and end up kicking everything around, scattering it everywhere.
Once I ran after a motorcycle. The driver cursed my mom.
When he passed by me he shouted: "Move you son of a bitch! Get out of the way."
I wasn't beside him.
He had enough space to pass through.
Then he even pushed me. So I got a piece of wood and ran after him.
Some collectors show up barefoot, without a shirt on, and just plane dirty.
And that causes prejudice.
Some people pass by us and pretend that they don't even know us. They look at us as if they were looking at a bag of garbage.
It's because we work with garbage, with what people dispose of, what has no meanings to them but for us means survival.
Society sees us as human trash.
Even though today things are changing. When I was ripping trash bags to collect stuff in front of people's houses,
when the residents would go out I would get scared, lower my head…
Our self-esteem becomes very low and we also end up feeling like trash.
Collectors are very suspicious. We come from a such a high degree of exclusion and exploitation that when someone approaches us to do good,
we end up thinking they only want to benefit from us.
If you acknowledge the fact that we are always misinterpreted with the product of our jobs, whoever works with garbage is necessarily
associated to the condition of dealing with what we have already disposed of.
Everyone's blood is red.
We are all the same.
Brazil's biggest problem is social inequality.
The discrimination that the collectors suffer are no different than that suffered by the homeless and by racial discrimination…
What happens is that our discrimination is based on economic values.
Who consumes and who doesn't.
A judgmental person looks at you and says:
"Oh, a northeastern, oh, a black person, or something like that."
He becomes paralyzed on that first impression, hovering over it.
It's an emotional, mental and cognitive functioning similar to that of a child of 18 months.
So if this person believes that someone from the northeast deserves to be excluded through prejudice,
he certainly thinks the same of the collector.
At the same time that he hates people from the northeast or the collectors, in some way he needs them.
But he needs them in that condition, which is probably the worst type violence imaginable.
The problem isn't the target of prejudice, but he who is prejudice.
In a society bound by the division of classes,
the base of this pyramid does not belong to this universe.
But at the same time, is the key functional element of this universe.
You demand his existence for operational purposes, but he does not fully participate.
The social differences are alarming.
The issue of invisibility was not created by the capitalist mode of production.
What capitalism did was transform it into something natural and acceptable, as if it was immutable.
The invisibility of some individuals depends on the blindness of others.
And if we focus the problem not on those who are invisible, but those who are blind,
we'll encounter at least two important things from a psychological point of view:
immaturity and insensitivity.
Because I'm the only thing that matters.
So in order to understand this state of things, I have to orientate myself directly to those who are blind and not those who are invisible.
Unfortunately the invisible person is in this moral and psychological condition of oblivion because we as bourgeoisies are insensitive to this.
During a meeting with the residents of my apartment building I mentioned that I had a project to help people that pull wagons.
People looked at me with such an astonished look and one even said:
"That's funny, because they never pass by our street."
So I said: "You've never noticed, because they're invisible, but they always pass by our street."
People only look at the collector when he's disturbing traffic, when he crosses the avenue with his wagon, for example.
Despite being invisible, their work provides a necessary service for all.
You might say "today I didn't see any collectors."
So open your eyes and start looking.
And I spent a common day working as a street cleaner in the São Paulo University,
later the idea of persisting in the field to investigate issues regarding the psychological distress of the manual worker came to mind.
So I started this project as a scientific research in 1994 and persisted with it through my masters and doctoral degree
until 2004 working as a street cleaner.
I would say that the most outstanding experience was to have entered the institute of psychology where I studied and knew many people,
dressed as a street cleaner and not be seen. So there is a natural demotion of this individual's potential.
So, in principle, we are not talking about valuing this job.
We are talking about valuing the fact that this job needs to be done.
What effect does public invisibility and blindness have on the blind?
Alienation and emptiness. We have a very narcissistic tendency in today's world
and we forget that if the person that serves me is not well,
I also won't be well.
The individual who becomes invisible has been inheriting this throughout generations.
Brandy, rum, and these sorts of things,
at the end of the workday is a way to cushion the impact of everyday violence. Violence that isn't only material, like low wages or unhealthy conditions,
but also the fail to recognize this individual as a citizen.
I stopped drinking white rum two days ago. Now I only drink beer.
I used to drink alcohol, paint thinner, gasoline…
I've even drank car oil. I've been hospitalized, then I ran away from the hospital…
I have some pills that I have to take and I don't.
I only drink beer.
This is a real issue where part of what some collectors earn to provide for their family is used on illicit drugs and alcohol.
This reality is still very present in our midst.
2007 was the hardest period of my life.
I had recently gotten out of a relationship and ended up living on the streets for more than a year.
And I won't deny to anyone that I had a very serious addiction to cocaine.
Very serious addiction to cocaine.
Some nights I would snort ten lines without hesitation.
We are often called names.
People humiliate us. Even today they think that we're incompetent.
due to our lack of education or addictions.
But it's not only collectors and poor people that have problems with crack, cocaine or marijuana.
But the mainstream media likes to sell the story that it's only the poor.
Previously we had no value in the recycling business.
Today, after Pimp My Wagon emerged, we started receiving a better value.
It's a project from some graffiti artists.
Today he can go out on the streets with his wagon to collect
or sometimes even with a van graffitied by artists like Mundano, Crânio,
and end up transforming this grey city into a more colorful one.
Since I've been painting for a while, I've always interacted with abandoned places
like under overpasses, so it was inevitable and natural that I would encounter marginalized workers while practicing marginalized art.
So instead of only painting overpasses and walls, I decided to paint the collector's wagons,
which automatically raised the self-esteem of the human being that was previously invisible.
So now they'll start talking about him not a as garbage scavenger,
but as a collector of recyclables.
So with "Pimp My Wagon" we want not only to raise his self-esteem but also give treatment and care.
We also try to give him safety.
So with colorful paint you make him visible,
with the reflective tape he can work safely at night, we can put side mirrors,
we can make his job safer with gloves, which are actually very basic materials,
but we can't ignore this problem since they're constantly dealing with contaminated materials, such as glass.
You arrive with a nice wagon, everyone looks, and they see my number, start to call me and give me some iron, cardboard, I help them move stuff…
Things that never happened to me before happened this year
Nobody ever paid attention to me. When I went to the doctors I was poorly attended.
At Pimp they took care of me. They looked at my foot fungus, my teeth and even gave me glasses.
I did everything I could. I even ate and drank.
When the city's master plan was finalized in 2002, they made a law where the municipality would have to support organized cooperative groups of collectors.
So we decided to formalize ourselves.
All you need to formalize a cooperative is a group with a minimum of twenty collectors and a space to work.
In the beginning, we had 22 collectors who united in order to try to have a greater volume of material to negotiate better and raise our income a little.
This is a nonprofit cooperation.
There is an environmental selective collection program where the city government develops an agreement with the cooperatives here in Sao Paulo.
Where they provide a covered area for sorting and the proper equipments for their jobs.
What the cooperatives have to do is receive the material from the city, through companies like Loga and Ecourbis,
sort it and then sell it.
Without this support, we as a cooperative, due to our monthly revenue
that the scraps, that trash gives us,
we would not be able to survive.
However, we believe that the service we provide for the city is much greater than all of this.
We provide a service of public utility and we should be compensated for what we do.
I've been here for 16 years
During this period I lost my mother, got depressed, started drinking and sleeping on the streets…
That's when I started to attend Coopamere. There was a social worker here at the time that would get the collectors that were only here to sell their material
and call them into a room to talk. That's how I started participating and that's how I realized I was ruining my life.
Coopercatas story is one of resistance.
Not only mine, but of the many people who were working and those who believed in us in order to participate in the cooperative.
Until today I remember the first time I entered the warehouse and saw everything,
I looked to Denise and said: "we've made it. There's no turning back anymore."
It's where everything literally started changing in my life.
That's where I understood that my kids couldn't be out on the streets collecting with me.
That they had to be in school studying. I didn't even know how to write my name.
I didn't even know what being a good citizen meant.
We have ten trucks that make daily collection runs. some of the materials are unloaded here.
Then the rest goes to that corner with two conveyor belts.
It goes up the conveyors. That one over there is the platform conveyor where people work from above.
And this one is the ground conveyor, which was our first.
From here the materials will be sorted out, then sent to compression.
We have this compressor over here and the rest are down there, which is where they tie everything up so that we can sell it.
The average income of our members is around a thousand to twelve hundred Reais per month.
We distribute everything equally between all associates.
All of our materials are redirected to recycling plants in order to become raw materials again.
Junkyards are always the same. You work plenty and earn nothing.
They'll pay you on the spot and everything, but what you earn is insignificant
They rig the scales and you have no control over it.
Also, every collector out on the street has an owner. There's always a junkyard that owns us.
What happens is that a lot of collectors pull wagons that don't belong to them.
The wagon belongs to the junkyard that rents it out and so when the collector comes back with materials he still has to pay to rent.
And what's left for him afterwards is close to nothing.
Here, he can work without being exposed to the weather, like under the sun and rain…
He has protective gears and more safety.
In a recent study we conducted we were able to conclude that the collectors out on the streets are able to earn more than those inside cooperatives.
At the time we did this study, cooperatives were earning between R$800 and R$600 while the street collectors were earning R$1.500.
However, if a street collector gets injured, he is not insured. He'll end up on the streets without being able to make any money.
Inside a cooperative, he has all of the guarantees.
I was clueless as to how much I was being exploited.
Inside a cooperative it's different. You work eight hours a day.
You have limits. There are moments where you have to work, but you have to have a social life as well. I didn't have that.
So it's hard to go up to someone who lives this life and say:
"From now on you're going to go in everyday at eight, stop at twelve and leave at six."
He feels like a prisoner.
I don't want to be in a cooperative because I don't like being told what to do.
If I'm going to be making peanuts I'd rather have my own wagon.
The collectors, in reality, are afraid to enter a cooperative and be in the hands of the government. They'd rather be independent out on the streets.
Sometimes he'll go out and earn R$50, the next day R$20, R$10…
He collects the materials today and sells it to a junkyard that will pay him on the spot. In a cooperative he has to wait the whole month in order to receive his part.
Cooperatives absorb those who are on the margin of society.
People who are drug users, alcoholics…
The elderly...
And it's a role the government doesn't play.
This role, of social re-integration and building these people's self esteem,
is a role played, in this case, by property developers, who are focused on solidarity economy.
We don't only recycle waste, we recycle lives.
The government has failed to meet with these collectors.
You have to be together so that you can build confidence in him that change is possible.
While respecting his state of exclusion.
Because if we wait for the government to resolve this, it's going to be too late.
So we have to pressure our governors that are elected with false speeches, like the ones you see on TV commercials.
You turn on the TV and it seems that every company, like banks, are sustainable. But they don't take action. It's only a speech.
Which is like political promises. So our role as citizens is to do our part and pressure the government so that our rights are upheld and in order for them to do their part as well
and effectively recycle so that our country can be the green lung that other countries believe it to be.
Many public figures can't accept that we have technical conditions to debate with them.
Thanks to God and Marx, we have this technical condition to debate.
The whole struggle issue of the collectors started with the cart. That's how the movement started in 2001,
with 1700 collectors
Our main goal is to fight for public policies.
After the first meeting we were able to get recognition from the Brazilian Classification of Occupations, the CBO.
Today our movement has spread in many states,
through our achievements like the National policy that was something we conquered.
The National Policy for Waste indicates responsibilities for the life cycle of products.
You have to include the collector and start taking integrated actions.
But I would like to highlight the role of private industries. They have to be present since the beginning of the process.
They have to develop better products.
They have to partake in the entire process of awareness and primarily make viable instruments for strategic actions
in order to effectively recover the waste.
The policy says that everyone is responsible and creates a reverse logistics scheme for this. All are accountable for consumption and post-consumption.
What are the majority of big companies doing?
They'll offer a compressor or a scale to the cooperatives.
But that's not what the law is saying.
The law is saying: pay for the service of reverse logistics.
We provide this service.
Today, the same person that enslaved us for centuries in the private sector,
wants to act like a nice guy. I don't want to ever be treated as "poor little thing."
I want to be treated as a professional and as a worker.
One of the movement's key issues is the fight against incinerators.
And I believe that this law opened a loophole for it.
In the final draft of the 9th article they softened the laws against incinerating.
And that's something that screws us up, putting an end to many jobs, hurting the environment and human health.
As soon as you burn something you will release toxins that contaminate the environment.
And we have to know that today we might be the ones here, but there are other generations that we have to leave a better world for.
We are obviously not in favor of humans pulling wagons, which is a subhuman job, of human haulage
in a way that reminds me of slavery. But in a way I'd like to see it evolve.
So that there isn't any more human haulage. We have the mechanisms to do it with electric energy,
in a flat neighborhood you can do it with bike pedals, so…
There are many ways to improve it, even reaching the level of cooperatives that have a large volume of waste destined for recycling collected with trucks and everything.
Well, if we're able to build a rocket that goes to the moon,
or a satellite that goes to Mars, how is it possible that we haven't socially reorganized ourselves so that we are not living daily with the fact
that some individuals are subjected to degrading and humiliating tasks.
I would honestly like to see a city without these street collectors.
I would like to see them being valued and working more productively in a more dignified manner.
However, I honestly do not see anything being developed for them today.
And my perspective for a near future is for them to continue pulling wagons here in São Paulo still.
I believe that the wagon is necessary for survival.
I cannot come out and say that they're tailless donkeys like the discussion we had in the beginning of the 2000.
They would talk as if they were defending these people's dignity, as if these conditions shouldn't exist.
It ends up sounding hollow and artificial, because if you do not have alternatives, how can you say that something can't happen?
When the sorting centers were created it was so that we could eliminate the collectors from the streets.
Make these people who work out on the streets come into a sorting center and have a better life.
And while we have attempted to modernize the production relations
or the labor relations linked to the collectors, giving them health insurance and salary,
even if all of this occurs, it does not rule out the fact that the form of production of which they are a part of
is the continuation of a legacy that has its origin in the Brazilian slave process.
Improving people's lives is the least that should happen. And the cooperatives might be a way for this.
And yes, there should be public and private investments
to train these collectors on the streets
and develop some mechanism in order for them to stop pulling wagons.
I believe there is a lack of investments. We fought for this in São Paulo.
We fought for an in depth mapping to find out who are these people? Where are they? How do they live?
Because if you understand their universe, you'll be able to think up alternatives that actually address their needs and/or interests.
I mean, it's not feasible to prevent someone from picking up a can or something off the streets.
You have to talk to them to see what is the best way for them to put the wagon aside
so that they can be repurposed in this environmental job,
while being valued for the job that they do.
We need to create public policies that include the collectors. That value their work.
If governments were to expand the cooperatives, giving them a more dignified life,
open more cooperatives, one in each neighborhood, I believe we would have better results
Society must take responsibility for the creation of waste and for these workers
that in one way or another are benefiting the government, nature and society as a whole.
You have to have a high level of awareness among the masses, educating the population,
creating leaders, people with conscience. So working with collectors cannot be limited to the issue of social inclusion and income.
A solution for all of this would be people having more compassion and remembering that they are human beings, just like everyone else.
That what they do is as important as what many other people do, like what I do, what you do with your camera, or any other professional occupation.
What we need to do is break this paradigm that a collector is a poor fellow.
A collector is a not poor fellow. He's a professional.
It is every citizen's responsibility to make society less unequal.
But how can we talk about being a good citizen if people don't practice it anymore?
Unfortunately, people are neither educated nor trained on what it means to be a good citizen.
If we really have the notion that we ignore this individual because his profession should be extinct,
we will start to fight not for their jobs to be better or easier, or something like that.
But so that the profession doesn't exist.
Should we value the work of the collectors? No.
What we have to do is value the individual that is working as a collector.
And if we in fact value this individual, the first thing we'll do is end this occupation.
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