Questions/Answers

The Waste Collection Program of Jaboatão dos Guararapes aims at promoting sustainable cooperativism for the social inclusion of waste pickers, prioritizing women and underpriviledged ones in situation of extreme poverty. It seeks to develop their financial independence by offering training courses and support to the recycling co-operatives, which receive, separate, improve and commercialize part of the city's recyclable waste, providing productive inclusion and environmental preservation. In the social aspect, the program works to enhance the role of the waste pickers by highlighting the environmental role they play in society, as well as providing significant improvement in their income through training courses for a more efficient management of their co-operatives, and centralized sales of the recyclable or reusable material that they have improved or fixed. The Waste Collection Program also aims at the environmental benefits of waste collection, which are: i)avoiding the disposal of solid waste in inappropriate places, which generates contamination of rivers and seas; ii)supplying raw materials to industries, reducing the need for natural resources and iii)promoting environmental education, thus increasing the amount of waste collected. Environmental education is addressed to all citizens, seeking greater participation in the separation and proper disposal of solid recyclable waste.

The program works in partnership with co-operatives of waste pickers- beneficiaries of the initiative. The co-operatives members are very engaged. Some are former waste collectors at Muribeca dump– closed in 2009– or worked in the streets. The program offers training courses as well as technical and infrastructure support, changing a situation of social abandonment and extreme poverty for a situation of social inclusion, respect and financial independence. It´s a program for the needy ones, prioritizing women (66%), offering work, income and access to health, education,social assistance, thanks to partnerships developed with municipal administration entities, private institutions and waste pickers' co-operatives

The program contributes to achieving SDGs # 1,8,10 to 12, as it works to free women and men from situations of extreme poverty, offering them training and source of income through decent work in recycling co-operatives. It prioritizes women and other excluded and exposed to vulnerable situation, such as HIV-positive, former offenders, former drug addicts, encouraging entrepreneurship and self-management of co-operatives. It also seeks to reduce social inequality and to empower co-operative members to become financially independent and environmentally aware.The program avoids accumulation of solid waste in inappropriate places, sending recyclable material to industries, promoting waste management and nature preservation

The waste collection in Jaboatão dos Guararapes was, for a long time, an informal activity carried out by people who worked exposed to vulnerability in the so-called ´Lixão da Muribeca´- an open air dump. Due to a judicial decision in 2009, the dump was closed and the municipality implemented waste pickers' co-operatives to welcome and socially include former waste pickers from Muribeca dump and street pickers. The training and formalization of recycling co-operatives, with the establishment of sorting warehouses and the sale of the materials (repairing reusable parts) through the Central Assortment and Trade Warehouse, provided former waste pickers- who used to work under risky and unprotected situation - in ´Lixão da Muribeca´ dump and in the streets- decent work, with security equipment, access to public services and better income, leaving the state of extreme poverty and vulnerability to become independent environmental agents. The technical support provided by the City Hall guarantees decent workplaces (sorting warehouses), logistic services for the collection of recyclable materials and training in management and cooperativism, among other benefits that enable social inclusion and economic progress of the members. Their empowerment, as agents of environmental preservation, and recovery of self-esteem are outstanding aspects of this initiative

The program is innovative because it provides decent living conditions to excluded ones through social inclusion and work. It prioritized those marginalized from Muribeca open dump, who had been neglected by the government for a long time, and also focused on environmental issues. Since its implementation, resources and efforts have been driven to implement recycling co-operatives, so that co-operative members become autonomous and financially independent, with the valorization of their profession. The innovation was to place the human being as a priority and to activate the system engine to provide his/her growth as a citizen and an independent environmental agent

The program is innovative because it was developed to promote social inclusion of waste collectors from Muribeca dump and from streets, through training and continuing education, in order to structure recycling co-operatives and to provide decent work and a sustainable source of income to excluded ones. It paved the way to education and vocational training to provide financial independence to the members.In 2018 the program has 75 waste pickers, who work in the four active municipal co-operatives, separating part of the solid waste and repairing reusable waste.In the municipal co-operative model, recycling is a successful social and environmental experience

The successful program of the recycling co-operatives in Jaboatão dos Guararapes is a model for the Northeast region of Brazil. In 2018, three municipalities of Pernambuco - Camaragibe, São Lourenço da Mata and the capital of Pernambuco, Recife – sent specialists in environmental issues to visit co-operatives and to know its management model. The aim of the visit was to learn about the process to implement the model of environmental management and productive inclusion in these municipalities.

According to the Municipal Annual Budget Laws from 2009 to 2012, the programs´s budget was R $ 3,252,200.00 (equivalent to U $ 813,050.00, considering the rate of R $ 4.00 per 1U $). This total was to purchase equipment (waste squeezers, scales, trolleys), to pay warehouses rentals - for solid waste sorting and processing – to afford expenses on fuel and transportation of members of the co-operatives and to offer continuing training courses. Besides, this budget covered expenses on the production of materials for the program on environmental education, on technical staff payroll and on purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE).

The initiative is environmentally sustainable because the volume of solid waste discarded by society is increasing, and the space for garbage accumulation is limited and raw materials are needed for scale production. The logic of recycling serves the maintenance of consumption and environmental preservation, being one of the irreversible paths for sustainability of the planet. The co-operative model, making waste pickers entrepreneurial of the business, enables social inclusion and financial independence for those who have been neglected for a long time. It is socially sustainable because it benefits and interests all society: i)to waste pickers to maintain income and economic growth; and ii)to consumers and industry for collaborating with environmental preservation by recycling the solid waste. As for the economic aspect, considering that public sector is responsible for the collection and proper disposal of garbage generated by society, it is the logistical cost of collecting and disposing of waste, as well as education for preservation of the environment and reduction of risks of disasters environmental impacts. Therefore, if co-operatives are self-sufficient in the treatment and commercialization of waste, the initiative is also economically sustainable.

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The City Hall program is managed by the Secretariat for Social Assistance, which works with a monthly monitoring of indicators, through electronic spreadsheets. The program coordination visits the co-operatives and collects the data in loco.At the beginning of each month, the data is presented to the Management Committee, formed by a representative of the City Hall and a representative of each co-operative. At the monthly meeting, the Committee evaluates the results and defines priority actions to improve the program. The deliberations are recorded in meeting minutes and the cycle is repeated monthly aiming at the program´s expansion and sustainability

The indicators monitored are: monthly volume of solid waste collected, volume of material used and rejected (refuse) in cooperatives, assiduity of collectors in the screening sheds and average income received by cooperative, for the sale of the materials benefited. Evaluations are also applied, after the capacities performed for the collectors, in addition to visits to the neighborhoods where the collection showed a decrease in the index of material collected. The cooperatives work with environmental education index, that is, amount of visits to buildings, schools, companies to present the program and win new suppliers of recyclable materials.

In 2018, there was a significant improvement in monitored indicators. Results in August/2018 showed 90% increase in the average income of the cooperative member, when compared to the average annual income recorded in 2017, reaching a result of R $ 1,230.59, the equivalent to US $ 307.00 (considering the exchange rate of R $ 4.00 per 1U $). There was also an increase by 109% in the amount of improved material (treated waste for sale) and a reduction of 6% in the percentage of refuse (2017 annual average compared to August/2018, according to data presented in the attached evaluation report)

For the elaboration of the program, the City Hall was the great articulator and counted on the participation of all who are part of the production chain: waste pickers from the Muribeca dump, civil society (companies,condos,people), companies that purchase recyclable materials, Municipal Secretary for Social Assistance and other Municipal Secretariats. In order to implement the initiative, the Municipality: i)hired consultants specialized in cooperativism and environmental management - to offer training courses to waste pickers; ii)rented the sorting warehouses; iii)bought equipment (separation mats and presses) for separation and waste treatment; iv) implemented selective collection, with the use of exclusive trucks for solid waste; v)developed a campaign to spread the program; and vi)hired staff for support to co-operatives and supervision of members. Some Municipal Secretariats offered social inclusion services to the waste pickers. The waste pickers defined their schedule and routine and how the waste should be separated. Purchasing industries defined how the waste should be processed and the amount for delivery. The civil society pointed out ways of storage in the residences and the frequency of collection. The program is evaluated by the Municipality and co-operatives.

Among the learned lessons,we highlight the model of co-operatives as one of them- which requires frequent intervention for solving conflicts to maintain and strengthen their members. The importance of empowering waste pickers as independent environmental agents was another lesson. Another, was the environmental appeal to citizens: to get them to identify themselves as active actors in the process of separating and donating solid waste to co-operatives. The challenge is to achieve scaled sales, to invest on educational campaigns and logistics, to modernize the productive structure, reducing expenses and expanding the program: to include more, to train more, to preserve more