Trash pickers Represent Global Environmental Force
July 13, 2008 · Global trashpickers contribute immensely to recycling efforts that help the environment:
- At an estimated 15 million people worldwide, trash pickers make up about 1 percent of the global urban population
- Brazil claims the world’s highest aluminum recycling rate, at nearly 90 percent — not because of recycling programs and other incentives to reuse, but thanks to the country’s estimated 500,000 trash pickers
- Brazilian trash pickers salvage about 33,000 tons of recyclables a day
- In Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, trash pickers recycle a third of all garbage
- In Argentina, the country’s poor earns about $220 a month, and trash picking generates about $170 million a year in Buenos Aires alone
So, next time you see someone in your neighborhood scrounging through street-side recycling bins, realize that you are looking at a member of our world’s most efficient recycling force!
Source: “Scorned trash pickers become global environmental force,” By Jack Chang, 3/24/08.
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