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Recycling in Brazil Becomes Ticket Out of Poverty and Inspires World
Source: ANBA, by Débora Rubin**

When he was unemployed, after years working as a welder, 49-year-old José Marcolino da Silva, from the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, first resisted the idea of becoming a recyclable garbage collector. He was not ashamed, disgusted or afraid of being run over. "I was afraid of scratching an expensive car and not being able to pay for it," he says.

Now, after seven years working as a collector, he takes pride in his job. It was garbage that afforded him his house, after 26 years of paying rent. José, his wife and their two kids work at the same cooperative.

José is one of 500,000 recyclable garbage collectors in Brazil. His story resembles that of so many other unemployed people who discovered garbage as a solution for the lack of employment. Presently, more than 500 cooperatives are estimated to be operating in the country.

They work in partnership with NGOs, companies and the government - since they help remove garbage from the streets. Whatever generates work also generates profit. Recycling generates approximately 7 billion reais (US$ 3 billion) and increasingly fuels industrial investments in the sector.

Besides, society is getting more involved every year, separating domestic garbage and demanding public policies for residues. This model, which involves the entire population, generating jobs and profit, has been attracting the attention of other developing countries, including Egypt.

In November, André Vilhena, of the Entrepreneurial Commitment for Recycling (Cempre), was in Cairo to make a presentation of the NGO, which has existed in Brazil for fifteen years. Sponsored by 20 companies, Cempre guides and organizes cooperatives in the entire country. It also has a complete database on recycling, and it promotes campaigns to encourage Brazilians to separate their garbage.

"The recycling model here is an example because it transcends the environment. Here, it plays a socio-economic role that is as much or more important than the ecological one," says Vilhena. "That is why countries with large unqualified workforces come here for inspiration."

Established in 1991, one of the NGO's main roles is to help organize cooperatives. The Cooperar Reciclando - Reciclar Cooperando (Cooperate by Recycling - Recycle by Cooperating) project distributes kits including booklets and videos containing step-by-step explanations on how to put a cooperative together.

According to Vilhena, it also guides associations that have trouble with implementation. Beginning in 2003, the organization started donating machines and presses. Since the project was established, twelve years ago, over 5,000 booklets have been distributed.

Brazil is still far from recycling as much as it could - and should. Of the 140,000 tons generated daily in the Brazil, 50% is still sent to dumps. Still, the model involving the civilian population, companies and the government, which generates jobs for recyclable material collectors, is attracting the attention of other countries worldwide.

The positive results of Cempre started attracting the attention of the headquarters of some multinational companies sponsoring the project, such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Alcoa, Nivea and Tetra Pak, among others.

The headquarters of these companies, in turn, communicate with their branches in developing countries that seek to establish local "Cempres." This way, Thailand, Russia, China, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and now Egypt have created similar models, in which large companies provide support to cooperatives and collectors associations.

According to the Egyptian Samaan Sameh, from Tetra Pak Egypt, the Brazilian model is perfect for his country, as both nations are similar with regard to unemployment levels. In Egypt, 80% of the household garbage is already recycled.

"Egypt is considered one of the largest recyclers in the world," stated Sameh. So what do they have to learn from Brazil? "We don't yet have this model of cooperatives, which is just starting to be implemented," explained the Tetra Pak director, who visited Brazil to learn about the Cempre and about some cooperatives.

Now, according to Sameh, Tetra Pak Egypt is seeking other partners to establish an NGO similar to Cempre and thus help organize cooperatives. "We also hope to count on the help of the government," he said.

If garbage has already attracted the attention of businessmen, it has also already attracted the attention of public organizations. On October 25 this year, days before being re-elected president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with representatives of the National Movement of Recyclable Material Collectors, an organization established four years ago.

At the occasion, he released the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) line of support to collector cooperatives. The program is going to finance from infrastructure projects to the acquisition of equipment and training of cooperated workers all around the country.

The Federal Savings Bank (Caixa Econômica Federal, CEF) also has programs to support collectors, like a special line of micro credit. Last year, however, the bank took a great leap: it launched a line of credit for habitation that is specifically turned to garbage collectors.

The first contract of the "Solidary Credit Program" was released in July 2005 in the city of Formosa, in the midwestern Brazilian state of Goiás, with the 60 workers of cooperative Cooper Recicla, a local association.

The program is promising as a large part of the collectors, citizens under the line of poverty, live in the streets or in precarious housing like slums and invaded buildings.

More than helping eliminate garbage in the streets of large cities, all this movement has been making collectors, normally seen by the society as an extension of the garbage they collect, gain a little status as citizens. And what was previously just an occupation has become a profession.