Catadores are people who collect and sell materials that can be recycled. This activity has been done informally in many countries for years. Recently, a recognition process has begun for the informal recycling sector, with public and private initiatives. In Brazil, catadores started out associating with each other in co-operatives in the 1980s. In 2010, the Solid Waste National Policy was approved, promoting the inclusion of theses co-operatives in the formal waste management system. However, only in 25 out of 5670 Brazilian municipalities have hired co-operatives as Private Service Providers. The integration of the informal sector has contributed with social, economic and environmental benefits; income generation, reduction of poverty and resource preservation are highlights. Although there was a legal progress, there are great challenges for various actors involved. This paper aims to diagnose the informal recycling sector, emphasizing the integration process that has happened in Brazil. For this, a substantial literature review and a case study were conducted, applying the tool 'InteRa' to the case of Sorocaba. The case showed that it is possible to improve the integration of catadores in the formal waste management system. The co-operatives achieve recycling rates of 2%, higher than the official national rate of 1%. However, we estimate that autonomous pickers increase total recycling in Sorocaba to 9%, still short of the 25% target via source segregation. Therefore, continuing the integration process will benefit both the pickers, and also the municipality through savings on landfill costs.
Urban soil gully erosion in São Luís, Brazil, has resulted in loss of lives and properties. Environmental conditions (soil properties/use, rain regime, slope characteristics) associated with deforestation, brought on by irregular, unplanned and unauthorized urban settlement expansion (without basic urban infrastructure, especially sanitation, rain pipes and paved roads), has promoted land degradation and initiated gully formation. Therefore, understanding the factors that generate erosive processes, as well as the application of control measures and prevention, are fundamental actions for public safety. A novel control approach is the application of palm-mat geotextiles. These offer considerable potential to contribute to soil conservation, through sustainable and environmentally friendly palm agriculture. Ongoing field and laboratory research, in Europe, South America, Africa and SE Asia, is investigating geotextile mats manufactured from palm-leaves to evaluate their long-term effectiveness in controlling soil erosion and to assess their sustainability and economic viability. Palm-leaf geotextiles are novel and offer new bioengineering solutions to environmental problems, as temporary application of geotextiles allows sufficient time for plant communities to stabilize engineered slopes. Initial investigations suggest palm geotextiles are an effective, cheap and economically-viable soil conservation method, with tremendous potential. Palm geotextiles offer enormous multi-faceted environmental and socio-economic benefits, which include environmental education and local community involvement in reclamation and environmentalimprovement programmes that reduce local community health risks.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.