The Activities of Recyclable Material Pickers in Brazil and Building Circular Economy Strategies

Abstract

This paper adopts the circular economy perspective to analyse the activities undertaken by recyclable waste pickers in Brazil and correspondingly focusing on their working and living conditions . Set in the framework of the Brazilian public policies enacted for the treatment of solid wastes, the findings demonstrate how, despite the recognition of the central role of the pickers as key environmental actors in the national context, their working conditions still remain hazardous and unsanitary, generating scant financial returns and with the social stigma still prevailing. The institutional recognition of the recycling picker profession as key to the management of solid wastes reflects a significant but still insufficient advance towards endowing these professionals with dignified working and living conditions . This also identifies the relevance and importance of the social and associative movements of these workers towards constructing solutions able to value their activities and bring about their social integration. Analysis of the particular case of the recyclable material pickers also conveys the importance of incorporating the circular economy into the socio-economic perspective to the extent that this contributes towards the subsistence of many thousands of people who deserve the guarantee of a minimum standard of living.