Shirlei Aparecida de Souza tramples empty cans picked up in the alleys of a poor district of Sao Paulo, her livelihood at the heart of a Brazilian recycling system that is a reference.
It is thanks to the painstaking work of nearly a million people like this 38-year-old woman that Brazil for the first time recycled as many aluminum cans as it produced in 2022, according to data from Recicla Latas, the association that represents the sector.
Recycling which has avoided the emission of 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over the past ten years, says this association.
But when she picks up cans at dawn, Shirlei Aparecida de Souza thinks above all of feeding her family.
Found in garbage cans, on public roads or in landfills, these cans are sold to collection centers which then supply aluminum recycling plants.
“In one day of collection, I earn about 20 reais (3.70 euros), just enough to buy the necessary, a packet of rice, black beans and sometimes meat”, confides to AFP this resident of Jardim Lapenna, working-class district of the largest metropolis in Latin America.
Wearing flip-flops, this black woman with long wavy hair goes out early in the morning to try to pick up as many cans as possible and bury them in a garbage bag: it takes nearly 70 to reach one kilo, sold for 1.15 euros.
It is a rough “family tradition” to which her mother initiated her when she was fifteen.
“Aluminum is sold at a higher price than other materials, such as cardboard, for example, and it is less heavy to carry. This is why there is a lot of competition between collectors”, explains Aline Sousa da Silva, activist of the National Association of collectors (Ancat).
Pedro, a 31-year-old young man who does not wish to reveal his last name, begins his tour at 4 a.m. to arrive among the first on the outskirts of Avenida Paulista, the emblematic artery of Brazil’s economic lung.
“It’s tiring, but there’s enough to earn an honest living,” he said, driving a van loaded with bags.
About fifteen kilometers away, in a hangar of the Latasa Garimpeiro Urbano company, a dump truck dumps tons of multicolored cans into a compacting machine which transforms them into enormous cubes.
Final destination: a foundry, where new cans are made.
Last year, Brazil managed to recycle the equivalent of 100% of its production, which places it far ahead of the European Union (73%) or the United States (60%), according to the latest figures published by these industries.
In Brazil, a total of “390,000 tons of cans were recycled, the equivalent of the 31.8 billion units marketed by manufacturers,” said Renato Paquet, one of the leaders of the Recicla Latas association, whose data is used as a reference by the Brazilian government.
It takes “on average 60 days” for a can bought in a supermarket to see its aluminum supply enough to fill the shelves once recycled, estimates Danilo Machado, logistics supervisor at Latasa Garimpeiro Urbano.
This activity has grown steadily since 2010, when manufacturers entered into an agreement with the authorities, committing to pursuing ambitious recycling targets.
Growth due, among other things, to heavy traffic: each Brazilian consumes 156 per year on average.
Selective sorting has also progressed in the country, with an extensive network of collection centers, which supply giants in the sector.
The recycling of cans weighs more than six billion reais per year (about 1.1 billion euros) in Brazil, but the collectors are mostly precarious workers, without any social protection.
They were honored in January, during the inauguration of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Aline Sousa da Silva, their most emblematic figure, had been chosen to present him with the presidential sash, alongside other people representing Brazilian society.
07/20/2023 08:16:42 – Sao Paulo (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
