“They don’t stop and analyse that what we’re recycling is coming from their homes” Pathways of waste and autonomous waste-pickers in Santos-São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Among the many socio-environmental issues that Brazilian cities face, one of the most pressing is the excess of waste. This article relates two poles of this problem: 1) the pathways travelled by waste in the city of Santos, in the state of São Paulo, as apprehended from institutional mapping, documentary research and interviews with those responsible for waste management in the city; (2) the vulnerability of autonomous waste-pickers from the stilt-favela of Dique da Vila Gilda. By listening and wayfaring observation, the article reports on how these subjects perceive and deal with waste and those who discard it, what difficulties they face and how they understand nature and technology. By observing them in movement we conclude that initiatives for dealing with the excess of waste must include these agents of socio-environmental protection in decision-making processes and the administration of public policies.