Contribution of Recycling of Municipal Solid Waste to the Social Inclusion in Brazil

This paper proposes the selective collection and recycling as alternative ways to promote the social inclusion in Brazil and help the country to eradicate extreme poverty and misery and achieve the first of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG1) of the UN. This work is based on the data from a Brazilian metropolitan city of Campinas and is extended to Brazil. The results show that the municipality of Campinas collects monthly 8000 tons of recyclables which if recycled can avail jobs to nearly 13,000 waste collectors with a minimum national salary of R$ 622/month or alternatively can create 40,280 Family Grants of R$ 200/month. In Brazil, the collected recyclables potential is about 2.4 million tons per month which can avail jobs to 2,350945 waste collectors or alternatively create about 7.3 millions Family Grants. 1. Introduction The combat against extreme poverty and hunger turned to be a challenge for several segments of the society and public authorities. In order to ensure the human rights such as alimentation, health, and education to millions of human beings living in precarious conditions, the United Nations Organization (UN) created the so called “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) in 2000 [1]. The MDGs are composed of eight socioeconomic goals, one of which is explicitly related to the present paper, that is, MDG1 which refers to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger [1]. About 1.4 billions or 20% of the world population live in conditions of extreme poverty surviving on less than US$ 1.25/day, while about 2.7 billions or 40% of the world population live in the poverty conditions with US$ 2/day [1, 2]. The lack of jobs or even sub jobs is one of the principal factors leading to the impoverishment of the population. In 2007, the amount of poor workers in Latin America reached 59% of the population and increased to 64% in 2009 [2, 3]. In an attempt to alleviate this critical situation, the UN together with 191 nations took the lead to indicate social measures and targets to be achieved until 2015, to combat the inequalities, and to improve the world human development. Among the actions adopted by governments is the Conditioned Transfer Programs (CTP). In Brazil, for example, the Federal Government implemented the zero hunger program “Fome Zero” which included among several acts the Family Grant program [4]. One activity that can contribute to creating jobs and income is related to the reuse or recycling of solid waste generated in the urban areas. Studies in developing countries show that the collection and recycling of solid waste