Annex 4B.

Promotion of Recycling in
Brazil A Case Study

Urban Management Programme

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

UMP/SDC Collaborative Programme on MSWM

in Low-income Countries

CASE STUDY
EDUCATIONAL KIT
FOR THE
PROMOTION OF RECYCLING COOPERATIVES
IN BRAZIL
Prepared by
Brazilian Recycling Commitment
(OEM PRE)
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Presented to the
Workshop on Micro-Enterprises Involvement
in Municipal Solid Waste Management
in Developing Counties

(Cairo, 14-18 October 1996)

Educational kit for recycling co-ops

Cempre: history and mission

Cempre, a non-profit association, was founded in March 1992 by a group of
multinational and major Brazilian corporations committed to promoting recycling
principally of packaging. (Cempre in Portuguese stands for Compromissa Empresarial
para Reciclagem and in English it is known as the Brazilian Recycling Commitment.)
Cempre has a staff of four, including the executive director, and an annual budget of
US$500,000, funded entirely by its 13 member companies, which believe that they hve
an important role to play in promoting recycling aad MSWM in Brazil.
Cempres member compames an: Brahma (beverages sector), CocaCola, Enterpa (waste
management), Lover Bros., Mercedes-Benz, Nestl, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble,
Rhone-Poulenc (chemicals), Souza Cruz (tobacco), Suzano (paper), Tetra Pak
(packaging), Vega Sopave (waste management).
Cempres initial projects focused on building a database on the rapidly-growing number
of municipal recycling programs in the country as well as putting out publications aimed
at helping decision-makers, such as mayors, business executives, school directors, etc.,
implement programs.
During the research carried out on the municipal programs, it became evident that there
is a large amount of informal recycling going on in Brazil via scavengers (catadores in
Portugese). In 1993, Cempre started work on creating a mechanism for increasing the
efficiency and income of this underprivileged sector of society. This mechanism
materialized in 1994 in the form of an educational kit to help catadores form microenterprises. The details of this kit are explained in the following sections.
Due to the tremendous demand far information about solid waste in Brazil, Cempre has
seen its mission broaden in two ways: (1) beyond recycling of packaging to include
organics and other materials, and (2) beyond recycling to encompess integrated waste
management The culmination of this wider vision was the launching, in 1995, of
Brazils first manual on integrated waste management, created in partnership with the
countrys foremost research institute, IPT. The first 7,000 manuals were distributed free
of charge to Brazils roughly 5,000 mayors and to universities, state environmental
protection agencies and 1400s. The manual is now in its second printing.
In addition to these two main projects, Cempre has put out a dozen other publications, as
well as a free bi-inonthly newsletter. Cempre has an information hotline that receives
about 200 calls per month about recycling, including the latest prices for recyclables all
around the country. There is also a databank on solid waste, called EcoData, containing
over 5,000 titles, managed by a foundation that is supported by Cempre.
Today, Cempre is the premier center of information on solid waste in Brazil and is one
of the most important environmental associations in te country. It is consulted on draft

legislation and was appointed to represent the country at ISO 14000 negotiations.
This ends the background section on Cempre. The following sections deal exclusively
with the recycling cooperative project
Kit Content
Cempre has created an educational kit to help non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
or city governments give a course on the first steps towards setting up recycling
cooperatives.
The kit, dubbed Coop erar Reciclano Reciclar Coop erando, is designed as a do-ityourself or stand-alone course - Cempre does not have the staff nor the, resources to
execute or even supervise all of the counts tint are bvuzg administered. One theme of the
course is to make scavengers aware that their work is a professional activity that
generates wealth and that they should be entitled to greater income generation.
At the heart of the kit is an instructors manual written for the person who will actually
execute a seven-part course to mostly illiterate scavengers on how to make the first steps
towards forming a cooperative. This manual explains about the reality in which these
people live, about recycling and, most important, gives the step-by-step procedures for
conducting each class.
The kit also includes a series of flip charts (with a rigid stand), comic book-style leaflets
(for the participants to take home and remember what was discussed in class), a
videotape (containing ten videos) and, finally, degree certificates to be given out at the
end of the course.
The kit provides practical tips: how to set up a co-op. how recycling and urban cleaning
programs function, advice on worker safety and hygiene, highlighting the importance of
not dirtying the streets during collection and the need to maintain good relations with the
rest of society.
Creation of kit
The educational material was produced in conjunction with the Fraternal Assistance
Organization (OAF), a Catholic foundation that set up a successful scavenger co-op in
Sao Paulo, called Coopamare. The design for the course structure was carried out by the
National Commercial Apprenticeship Service (Senac), which runs Brazils foremost
commercial training schools. The cost of the first 200 kits, around $30,000, was entirely
flmded by Cempre.
With this kit, Cempre has created a mechanism for replicating success within Brazil.
Cempre did not invent the notion of recycling co-ops. It is a concept that began to be put
into practice in the late eighties in several Brazilian cites and earlier in Colombia.

Coopamare, model of successful recycling co-op

Coopamare was founded in Sao Paulo in 1989 with the help of OAF. One of the first test
courses using the kit was conducted at Coopamare prior to its nationwide launch in
September 1994. Coopamare, with 53 members, is one of Brazils most successful coops It alone collects 100 tons a month of recyclables, a volume equivalent to half of
what the entire official Sao Paulo city recycling program is able to pick up - at much
greater cost. (Cempres study of the Sic Paulo curbside recycling program showed that it
cost over $400 per ton of recyclables collection, compared with $25 for regular waste
collection by trucks. The nationwide average for curbside collection in Brazil is $262!
ton expensive by any standard.)
-

The co-op members are able to earn an average of $300 a month (or more, in many
cases) from the recyclables that they collect. This is twice the minimum wage in Brazil,
and places them in a privileged position considering that half of the countrys labor force
that earns less that $150 a month. They are able to achieve these above-avenge earnings
in part because of the wealth of high-grade packaging and newsprint materials found in
Sao Paulos middle-class waste, and because they arc able to sell directly to large scrap
brokers.
At least 7 other recycling co-ops have sprung up in the more developed Southern region
of Brazil, also with handsome boosts in income levels. Some are geared towards street
collectors while others are made up of scavengers who operate at dumpsites, picking out
the recyclable elements before the rest of the waste is buried. Cempres kit, though
primarily geared toward street collection, can be used for scavengers who used to live at
dumpsites that have been closed by government action.
Distribution of kit within Brazil
The kit was officially launched at a ceremony in Rio, with great media coverage. The
Brazilian Environment Minister made a point of appearing at the event to give a
presentation, though he had not been invited as a speaker, to highlight the importance of
this work and, in a unique moment, to hear the presentations from several recycling coop members (scavengers).
Since the launch in 1994, Cempre has distributed most of the 200 kits to a wide a range
of organizations. Cempre has determined the profile of those entities eligible to receive
the material and execute the course:
(1) Pxcfenmcc is given to NGOs and religious organizations that carry out work with
scavengers or with the homeless.
(2) Approval is also given to those city governments that already have support programs
for scavengers and the homeless.
(3) Consideration is given to those city cleaning departments that seek to improve their
services by organizing scavengers. Also important is application of the kit for
scavengers that have been removed from open dumps that have been closed for sanitary
reasons.

(4) Rarely as the kit passed on to private-sector firms, especially scrap dealers, as these
companies will seek to further exploit these workers.
Through the use of this ca-op kit, Cempre has fostered the creation of roughly two dozen
associations (the first step prior to a cooperative) in Brazil. The most successful
experiences have been those were there has been strong material support from the
municipal government and a local NOOS Cempre maintains contact with those entities
that have received the kit and keeps a file on the progress (or lack of such) of each
organization in setting up an association.
In addition, kits have been sent to Argentina, Colombia, India. Puerto Rico (U.S.) and
Uraguay.
Problems addressed by Cempres Kit
Cempres kit helps mitigate some of the scavengers problems:
(1) Unemployment - Scavenging is proliferating in both developing and developed
nations as a result of two trends: the using tide of unemployment and the
enrichment of municipal solid waste (more aluminum, paper, plastic, glass, etc.).
As long as both trendlines continue upward, there will be an ever-growing number
of scavengers.
Recycling co-ops provide employment opportunities in developing countries as a
whole. The kit helps provide a greater source of income for the recyclables that
scavengers collect
(2) Rising cost of sanitation services - Linked to the growth in solid waste generation is
the necessity for more comprehensive, and more expensive, city cleaning services.
While Cempre considers that more sophisticated sanitation services are a sign of
maturity, increased cost do not always mean better services. This is especially true
when attempting to stimulate recycling. Curbside collection programs, when run
exclusively by city governments, tend to have high costs. Organized scavengers
have proved to be a cost-saver in recycling initiatives in Brazil reducing the need
for expensive collection and separation equipment.
(3) Low Incomes - In Brazil, co-ops have improved the avenge incomes of
participating scavengers by at least 50%.
The current structure of the traditional scrap industry in developing countries
presupposes the exploitation of scavengers by a long chain of intermediaries who earn
the real profits from the recycling industry. While scavengers can often earn incomes
that are above those of the majority of the population (to the surprise of many), they
have not fully realized their potential income.

(4) Social development - By forming cooperatives, scavengers make a major step in

reintegrating themselves with the rest of society. This kit provides the first step towards
such integration and eventual political awareness. The course does not intend to
encourage individuals to take up scavenging as a permanent source of income, but rather
it seeks to offer a better way of life for both co-op members and their children.
(5)

Poor self-perception - Scavengers have poor self-perception. They do not realize

the great benefit that they are bringing to the environment. Because of their lack of
self-esteem, and their negative public image, they have little respect for the rest of
society as well. This translates into carelessness in opening trash bags on the
curbside, not respecting traffic regulations, among other practices that entail
sanitary and safety problems. Lack of self-esteem also hinders their ability to fight
for their rights as productive workers, a condition fostered by the small-time scrap
dealers who buy from them.

The kit, as part of Cempres overall strategy to boost recycling, focuses on the
environmental benefits of their work.
(6) Dump closings - In certain countries, such as Brazil, the trend is for cities to close
dumps and send the waste to new sanitary land fills that have the proper controls to
handle the flow of leachate and gases. in Recife, Brazil, for example, more than 1,000
scavengers live off of a major dump.
The closing of any given dump, on which hundreds of scavengers may earn a living, has
catastrophic consequences on the communities that live around them. The kit is beng
used in Brazil to help train these people so that they may be able to form co-ops that can
separate specific recyclable portions of the previously-collected waste.