Socioeconomic assessment of urban solid wastes of the city of Campina Grande/PB Suellen Silva

Abstract

Within the context of the current socioeconomic crisis in Brazil over the last years, the separation and collection of recyclable materials have become a growing “market”. This market gave rise to the expansion of informal labor and scavenging (catação) of solid wastes, activity developed, most of the times, in the waste dumps scattered throughout the Brazilian municipalities, as in the city of Campina Grande, State of Pernambuco. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the contribution of the scavenging activity to the community socioeconomy that lives around Campina Grande Waste Dump. To carry out this work, data were collected on the daily waste production in the city and interviews were conducted with the waste pickers (catadores). It was found that the activity under analysis is important for the subsistence of the community and cannot be ignored, for that reason an urgent intervention is necessary not only to pay the debt of the government and society to these workers , but also to recognize their relevance on the environment and their economic contribution to the municipality.