Celebrating waste pickers
October 27, 2023
(Photo: a field visit with our students from UNICATA to one of the cooperatives (Avemare) in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil.)
Celebrating waste pickers
On August 12th, 2023, UVic geographer Jutta Gutberlet celebrated the first 22 students who completed the first of six modules of the UNICATA: A University for and with Waste Pickers course: Inclusive waste governance for a sustainable and fair society.
Over 150 guests, including leaders of the waste picker community, representatives of the government, university professors, representatives of different Non-Governmental Organizations, a representative from Argentina’s capacity development program for waste pickers and many friends of the waste picker community came to this celebration. During the event at the City Hall, the students also presented some of their key findings from first experiences with community-based research.
UNICATA: University of and for waste pickers, is a university based on Paulo Freire's popular education pedagogy, knowledge democracy and the practice of peer learning.
Gutberlet has been working for 20 years on waste diversion and recycling projects in Brazil and other parts of the world, and many recyclers have organized into cooperatives and networks that engage with municipal programs.
Her waste diversion and recycling projects in São Paulo, Brazil, have been so successful that many recyclers have organized into cooperatives and networks, are engaged in municipal waste diversion programs and have turned recycling into a livelihood and a way to provide for their families.
In Victoria and Vancouver, Gutberlet and her team have had similar success with marginalized groups by exploring the livelihoods of recyclers (locally known as “binners”) and finding solutions to poverty and homelessness, and ultimately to help the environment.
UNICATA: University of and for waste pickers, watch: https://youtu.be/uzl9ZSaqzVM