Catadores
(Scavengers)
by Eduardo Chamon
Brazil
produces 250,000 tons of rubbish per day
Nowadays,
about 500,000 scavengers find in the rubbish their
source of income
Magrão
It's like the grasshopper and the ant story,
While the ant was working, the grasshopper was
playing music
In the summer, the hot summer, and the grasshopper
was there
And the ant only working, working and working |
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When the winter came, the ant put everything in a
safe place
And the grasshopper had to knock on the door and say
"Help me for God's sake..."
And the ants "Come in, my dear grasshopper."
That's the life of the human being.
And
who are you?
The
ant or the grasshopper?
I am the little ant.
Do
you work?
Uh,
can't you see it?
Why would I play the guitar?
Scavengers
Vera
Environmentalist
The
scavengers for us are the most important people in
all the recycling system.
Because, without having any particular concern about
the environment,
they contribute to the recycling chain as a matter
of survival,
they're informal workers.
It's an old job, this activity has been going on for
centuries.
And they do the silent job of contributing to the
environmental preservation.
As we have this problem that nobody can solve called
unemployment,
it has become a way of living for many families throughout
Brazil.
The
rubbish usually comes at night, from Monday to
Saturday.
It's at 7 p.m. and goes on till 1 a.m.
Then we begin to walk around, looking for rubbish. |
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The morning is the same, the rubbish comes at 7 a.m.
and goes on till 1 or 2 p.m. That's every day.
I
finish my housework in the daytime, and at 5:30 p.m.
I came down to the street.
Every day.
And what time do you get back home?
2 a.m., because I live in Rocinha slam.
2 a.m.?
Yes, I live in Rocinha and come on foot.
You walk from Rocinha to Ipanema?
Yes, we come from Copacabana.
And how do you carry all this stuff?
In my hands, in my head, that's how.
Is
it hard work?
Our job on the street?
Yes, man.
Sometimes we prick ourselves, cut our hands. Cars
run over us, look at my hand. Two months with this
hole in my hand.
What happened?
The car squashed me between my trolley and another
car, and ripped my finger.
He stopped to see if had scratched his car. I went
to him, he didn't help me at all. And I didn't stop
my job.
Sometimes we found in a bag of addicted people a lot
of infected syringes.
But we must put our hands inside to extract the paper,
cans .
Food on the street, we open the container, if there
is a bread inside, or something eatable, we eat it,
because hungry is blind.
Silvano
Rubbish makes our body stink, because we manipulate
too much the rubbish, and find fleas, dogs pooh,
or dead rats. That's our problem, because our
smell is not very good. People look down on us. |
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Outro
It's hard, nobody appreciate it. We can't dress up
and go to collect rubbish. It's impossible to search
in the garbage dressed like a professional. You need
to be dirty to do this job. So people discriminate
us, they think we are beggars, or robbers.
Carlos
I am a bricklayer, painter, electrician. I work in
building, edifice. Nowadays, these are hard days,
so I've changed my tools and now I'm working with
it to survive. Is it humiliation for us? Yes. I wouldn't
like to do it, but I need to survive.
Ailton
Who brought me to this job was a beggar. She asked
me: Ailton, are you in a miserable situation? I answered:
Yes. Do you want to go with me to the city centre?
To collect some scraps? I agreed. In the first day
I took the leftover of a market-place, in the following
day I took some cardboard and bought my cigarettes,
in the third day I bought my bus tickets. I've got
addict. No boss to bother me, I work when I want,
so I am addict.
Lucicl[eia
What do you think of a person that drops cans on the
street?
It is profit, because we collect them.
Carlos
We are divided into those who collect paper and who
collect used stuff.
I am a used-stuff prospector.
Really?
Yes
And what is it like?
I
search for shoes, clothes, jewellery...
And
where do you sell it? |
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Praça
XV, São Cristóvão, Glória,
on Sundays...
In
market-place?
Yes,
market-place.
And
are you the seller too?
Yes, I am the seller.
Ronys
There are a lot of things that people waste and are
valuable. Radio. A lot of things... people don't want
it any more and through it away.
Marcos
Another friend of mine has found a bag of dollars.
Found
what?
A
bag full of dollars.
Ronys.
It happens.
Looks, another trolley over there.
I found mobiles, a lot of mobiles stuff, chargers...
Still
working?
Still working. Yesterday I found four. It's stored
in my other trolley.
Carlos
For example, a 70's doll. There is a guy on the Internet
asking for a 70's doll.
For collection, there are collectors of old money,
of coke, every stuff about coke. Aluminium Ferrari,
not the iron ones.
Made in China products are discarded. Nobody buys
products made in China.
Old products, very old things... Like... I've sold
on Praça XV a soldier's button dated 1819.
How
much have you sold it?
R$150,00
ZéMaria
We make more money from build brash.
Because with brash we put our price. Recycling stuff
sometimes is expensive, and sometimes is cheap.
Two months ago it was paid R$0,25 for a kilo of cardboard,
nowadays it costs R$0,12.
Wilson
In the beginning of this year, we used to sell the
cans for R$3,00 or R$3,50 per kilo. Nowadays, it dropped
to R$2,00. There must be someone taking this money.
How
long have you been collecting cans in the rubbish?
More than 15 years, man.
Before the co-operatives. We have founded the co-operatives.
EDSON
(BarraCoop, Manager)
The co-operated scavengers are more respected on the
street. They wear uniform, use badges. With this work
system, they can be allowed to get in some gated communities.
That is the difference between the street scavenger
and the co-operated scavenger. The street scavenger
doesn't have any identification.
Roberto
(Coopersul, President)
We are trying to introduce adult primary school, we
pay the Social Security Service, and we give them
insurance.
And at the end of the year, we share the profit. The
street scavenger hasn't got these advantages.
Brazil
World leader in aluminium recycling
VERA
If
you realise that we have millions of recycled cans
per year... Do we reduce the aluminium production?
No.
How
not?
VERA
Because it goes abroad! |
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Why
don't we reduce the aluminium production if we recycle
it a lot?
The aluminium mine impact... you don't want to see
that shock.
It is a huge devastation.
To dig, to extract bauxite, absolutely nonsense. And
the power that the stuff waste to turn it into those
thin plates to make the cans.
Therefore, they don't produce it there anymore. They
came here, to this big bin here.
Because we sell them for pennies what costed thousands
to remove.
And what about the impact? This environmental devastation?
Who pays for it?
Why
are there so many scavengers on the street?
It's
the necessity, everybody needs. There are a lot of
people here who have a family, but can't provide for
it. And with the cardboard it is possible.
I bring to my house every day R$20,00 or R$25,00.
If I save it, at the end of the month I have R$600,00.
And it's better than the minimum wage. That's recycling.
If we go to a formal work, our boss gets rich and
we always go down.
Carlos
The only thing that I think is of a stable life.
What
was the major achievement in your life?
Actually, nothing. I haven't achieved anything, I'm
a semi-illiterate guy, I have got very little education.
In Brazil we are judged by what we have, I don't have
anything, I'm not worth anything, I'm nothing.
Manoel
Who had a future up to now had it. Who doesn't have
it now will not find it any more. We are just stumbling
through life.
Do
you have a dream?
It's too late to dream now.
I've dreamed a lot.
Why
is it late?
Because I've learned to live in the real world.
