In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a new model of selective collection has given informal catadores (recyclers) responsibility for collecting door-to-door — and the trucks to do the job.
![Brazilian catadores with new truck Sep 2019](/sites/default/files/inline-images/BH%20trucks%20and%20workers.jpg)
On September 16, the Municipal Cleaning Agency of Belo Horizonte transferred its door to door collection of recyclables to six cooperatives. Previously, the city had drop-off containers in public places, where residents left their recyclables to be picked up by city trucks, then taken to catadores working at the coop centres. Only one neighbourhood had a system of door-to-door collection involving a cooperative (Coopesol Leste).
In addition to signing contracts with the workers cooperatives to provide the collection service, the Mayor provided six trucks, one for each.
Although Belo Horizonte has been a pioneer of including informal recyclers through social accords and comprehensive policies designed to integrate them, catadores have long demanded the right to be the actual collectors, as this allows a direct relationship with residents and increased control in the recycling scheme. The workers coops and their supporting NGOs, who come together in a social and governmental participatory space called the Waste & Citizenship Forum, fought long and hard to gain this outcome.
“This is a victory for organized waste pickers,” said WIEGO Waste Specialist Sonia Dias, herself a Belo Horizonte resident. “And it is a testimony to the importance of NGOs and coops convened at the Municipal Waste & Citizenship Forum, and to the dedicated public officers who fought within the cleaning agency for this to happen.”
![celebrating recyclers in Belo Horizonte Sep 2019](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Belo%20Horizonte%20news.jpg)