Levantamento socioeconômico de profissionais catadores de resíduos sólidos: a coleta seletiva/reciclagem como forma de inclusão social

Abstract

In Brazil, recycling is a phenomenon marked by the presence of pickers of recyclable materials that support the base of the production chain. Despite the existence of social inequality, these workers resist daily, through individual and/or collective initiatives, acting on the streets, dumps or organized groups, removing from waste their main and only source of income. The cooperatives for the collection, sorting and sale of recyclable materials develop important services to cities, from reducing municipal waste disposal expenses to job creation. The Marcos Moura Recycling Cooperative (COOREMM) is a cooperative that performs such activities in the municipality of Santa Rita (PB). The social inclusion of waste pickers has been the object of a series of inductive measures in the form of laws, decrees and normative instructions to promote the activity of collection. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to establish, through questionnaires and/or interviews applied to the members who agreed to participate, a descriptive analysis of their socioeconomic situation. Data collection was performed with 15 collectors addressing information on education, living conditions, working conditions, health and well-being. Overall, the study showed the predominant presence of older workers aged between 32 and 65 years. The supremacy of low education was also observed. In addition, the conditions found indicate that the profession of waste picker was not a choice by choice but because they did not find another profession within the labor market, thus ensuring their livelihood within a social reality marked by uncertainty and insecurity.