The Martlet

The words “university research” don’t usually elicit images of collecting metal scraps, food spoils and dingy plastic in some of the world’s most marginalized communities. But UVic geography professor Jutta Gutberlet and her team are not interested in the type of research that never leaves the ivory tower — they brand their studies as “action-oriented” research, making direct social change central to the program.

“It’s a more holistic approach toward human development,” said Gutberlet.

Gutberlet founded the Community-Based Research Laboratory (CBRL) at UVic in 2006, and has been researching recycling co-ops in collaboration with the University of Santo André in and around São Paulo, Brazil ever since.

This project, called the Participatory Waste Management (PWM) Project, aims to recycle urban dirty work into an empowering solution addressing environmental issues, sustainability, social capital and poverty — at least that’s the vision.

On the ground, recyclers collect their goods going door-to-door, and each one has a fair say in the business of their respective recycling co-operatives. Initial training in the co-op model comes from the PWM project. Many of the first co-op members were already recyclers — they joined after a dump where they scavenged was shut down. The project got them turning garbage into gold within a fair, organized and empowering system. Later, participants were attracted to the co-operative model, and the project now boasts upwards of 500 pairs of hands.

But in recent months, the project has turned from a great venture to a risky one — not because of the nature of the job, but because of the character of the world economy.

All these are part of the “Advances, Risks and Vulnerabilities of Co-op Recycling,” a March 5 lecture Gutberlet gave, hosted by the B.C. Institute for Co-operative Studies.

“The dependency on the world economy holds the biggest risk currently,” said Gutberlet.

According to her, income for recyclers has dropped to a third of what workers were making before the market crash, a wage that was already hovering around the poverty line. As co-op members have begun to disband, the municipality of São Paulo has already reported a 10 per cent increase in waste, according to Gutberlet.

Yet these disasters don’t drain, but seem to fuel Gutberlet’s optimism.

“I think a crisis is also an opportunity,” she said. “It’s a good moment right now to bring up these issues.”

With waste piling higher and recyclers resorting to begging on the streets, she says the phenomenon is “very visible.”

And the value of co-op recycling is much greater than waste management service. Gutberlet compares the efforts of São Paulo recyclers to Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, hands-down the largest social movement in Latin America. The ethical stewardship and co-operation fostered in co-operative models starts right from the flipcharts, whiteboards and trainings of the first group leaders in the PWM project.

“The leaders are very aware of how strengthening it is to live those values,” Gutberlet said.

But the problem, according to Gutberlet, is that governments are unaware of the value of co-op recycling.

“Some [recycling] groups are on the [edge] of existence,” she said. “It’s a very critical situation right now.”

Municipalities everywhere could start by paying recyclers, at least to the tune of what recyclers save by lightening the load on city waste.

“There is a price to what these people are doing, and it’s never been fully recognized,” Gutberlet said.

She believes it’s a policy issue, and that governments are stuck on the idea that it is better or more efficient to deal with a single technology or enterprise than a collective.

“It’s too much hassle to deal with people,” she explained, comparing Brazil’s situation to the dilemma in New Delhi, where a carbon-credit-producing incinerator is about to put a lot of trash-pickers out of business. “We are burning what is actually a resource, [and] we are losing opportunities.”

She sees a supportive policy framework as a lifeboat for co-op recycling while material prices are low, by stimulating demand for recycled products with subsidies for example, and making it easier for co-ops to be formally recognized — in Brazil it can take years.

“It’s not impossible; it has to do with commitment,” said Gutberlet. “Otherwise, these groups won’t survive a crisis like this.”

The binners of Brazil are not Gutberlet’s only study subjects — the CBRL researches recyclers in Victoria and Vancouver too. For more information, visit cbrl.uvic.ca.