RIO -They have lived with uncertainty for dozens of years: at the Gramacho landfill they fought over garbage with vultures, pigs and dogs and were never quite sure how much they would make at the end of the day. On June 1, the largest landfill in Latin America — which covers an area of 1.3 million square meters along Guanabara Bay — will finally close its gates after 34 years in operation, adding a great deal more uncertainty to their lives. Approximately 1700 garbage pickers will say goodbye to the life they have known, their future uncertain, though bolstered by a R$14,000 payout in their pockets.
A guaranteed job would be great, but none are on offer. What is available is a selection of job training programs and the creation of a Recycling Center, paid for by the State Fund for Environmental Conservation and Urban Development (Fecam), which will employ around 500 people and should be operational in the second half of 2012.
A hundred garbage picker have been employed in the construction of this center, thanks to an agreement with the construction workers union. FAETEC, associated with the State Secretary of Science and Technology, will offer, in partnership with the Municipal Secretary of Environment, 1320 positions in job training programs (electrician, electrician’s assistant, plumber, mason, carpenter and basic IT training). Classes will begin a day after the landfill closes. Nobody has signed up yet. According to Isaías Bezerra, social responsibility coordinator of Nova Gramacho, the company that operates the landfill, people are very confused:
"Nothing will guarantee the garbage pickers that they will be able to find a job after these courses. Many of them don't even have a birth certificate. Now, they have to deal with a legal system, documents, the availability of courses. All this is emerging somewhere that used to be completely lawless, where the loudest person or the one with the gun ruled. Also, many have never known anything else but how to make a living off garbage. The process is very delicate, as if you are moving an indigenous nation from the place where they have always lived.”
20% of garbage pickers have never been to school
A study commissioned by the Secretary of Environment and conducted by the Research Institute on Labor and Society about Jardim Gramacho, the neighborhood where the landfill is located, gives an indication of the problem’s scope: 5807 people live in conditions of poverty and 2101 people in conditions of extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is found in 18% of the households of the garbage pickers. The study shows that with the closure of the landfill, per capita household income will be reduced by a third. There will be a 68% increase in the number of households in extreme poverty. Another alarming fact is that 20% of garbage pickers have never attended school.
"Based on this study, we have been able to assist many of the garbage pickers in registering for the Bolsa Família government subsidies," says Carlos Minc, state secretary of Environment.
Globo reporters who visited Gramacho were surrounded by many garbage pickers who insisted on telling their stories and sharing their doubts about the future:
"I have tried several times to find a job, I have taking cooking lessons, baking lessons. But I only have a grade eight education. When I go to interviews, I don't know if it is the way I look, but they never call me back. The landfill gave me many good things. On good days I earned more than R$100 per day. I was able to pay for my daughter's medication, who was born with syphilis. I paid for courses. Today she lives in Italy and wants to study engineering," said Angelina Sabina Silva, who doesn't know what she will do with the R$14,000 she will receive from the Participation Fund for Garbage Pickers.
Today, only adults and seniors are seen fighting over the garbage produced by residents of Rio. But until the ‘90s it was quite common to see children rummaging through the waste. Hélio Côrrea was one of them:
"I started here at the age of 12. I would come around and sneak into the landfill. If I didn't, I wouldn't eat. I would pick garbage all morning and go to school at night. But it was quite tiring and I ended up staying in Gramacho," said Côrrea, explaining why he is only now completing his primary school education.
"I am concerned about the future of the garbage pickers. The money will last a while, but then what? The entire economy of the region revolves around garbage. There are many illegal landfills around here. If there is no definitive social action, many may go back and feed the illegal circuit in the area," explained Vik Muniz, the artist who portrayed the hard life in Gramacho in Wasteland, an Oscar-nominated documentary.
The money from the fund will benefit 1709 garbage pickers. These resources, worth R$21 million, are one of the concessions included in the contract between the city waste service Comlurb and the company Novo Gramacho, which for the next 15 years will extract methane gas from the landfill and sell it to Reduc. Another company obligation is to invest R$20 million in improving the Gramacho neighborhood. Another R$60 million will be raised by the federal government and other entities.
The money caused dramatic fights in the landfill. Last Tuesday, a garbage picker and member of the leadership council for Gramacho wound up at the police station accusing another member, who is in charge of creating the list of recipients, of aggression. The confusion began because nobody agrees on who is or is not entitled to be on the list.
"'The council drew up a list without listening to the leadership council, as had been previously agreed," said Marcio Marciano, one of the leaders. According to Marciano, around 300 people were wrongfully included and another hundred, who should have been on the list, were left off. They are now resorting to the Public Defender.
Although the future of the garbage pickers may be uncertain, the future of the landfill and the garbage has already been determined. The nine tons of garbage that arrive every day from Rio will now go to the Seropédica landfill, which will also receive over a ton of garbage a day from Caxias. The garbage from São João de Meriti will be transported to the Belford Roxo landfill. These two locations are Waste Treatment Centers and use special measures to prevent pollution of the soil, which has been lined with impermeable layers of plastic, sand and clay. As soon as the trucks dump their garbage, it is covered. There are no garbage pickers at the centers. Nor vultures. Celso Pereira Malaquias has a hard time conceiving of this reality. A father of five, he met his wife ("the best present Gramacho has given me") at the landfill.
"I am very grateful for all of this. I am only sad that it will close. I wish that I could work in Seropédica," he said.
English version: Shawn Blore