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December 8, 2008

CATAUNIDOS - Network of Commercialization of 7 Waste Pickers' Associations From 7 Municipalities Within the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte

MATERIAL (Compacted) PRICE 10 MONTHS AGO ($R) PRICE 6 MONTHS ($R) PRICE DEC/2008 ($R)
White paper 0,46 0,46 0,34
Newspaper 0,27 0,21 0,05
Magazines 0,25 0,20 0,05
Cardboard 0,53 0,38 0,12
Pet   0,80 0,80
PEAD   0,80 1,20
Plastic Film   0,80 0,90

In response to a demand from the Minas Gerais State Waste and Citizenship Forum and the state representatives of the national movement of waste pickers to the Minister of Social Development, the Government of Brazil is using its food security programmes to address the emergency needs of the cooperatives. The response measures include: 1) food supply for Christmas; 2) food supply until March 2009; 3) a pilot scheme within the Minas Gerais State for a direct link on an ongoing basis between urban and rural workers for supply of cheap food.

  1. On an emergency basis (to guarantee food supply for the waste pickers at Christmas), the federal government will buy cestas básicas (a supply of basic groceries like rice, beans, oil, milk, sugar etc) for the cooperatives listed by the MNCR and make sure to reach the cooperatives in Minas Gerais State for the festive season.

    The ASMARE (waste picker cooperative of Belo Horizonte) asked the representative of the Ministry to include cestas básicas for the autonomous waste pickers who are not affiliated to any cooperative but have been hit harder as some scrap stores have closed with the crisis and/or have not been able to keep up with the prices for recyclables. ASMARE has been holding regular meetings with some of these autonomous waste pickers and can make sure that the cestas básicas reach them;
  2. It was decided that the federal government will involve the PRONAF - a national programme of family agriculture so that supply of basic groceries to listed cooperatives will be guaranteed till March 2009 when then the federal government and the Minas Gerais State Waste and Citizenship Forum will assess the situation to see if these are still needed. Otherwise this emergency relief will stop as of end March 2009.
  3. As a longer term measure, it was decided that Minas Gerias state will try to pilot a scheme linking rural workers (family farmers from PRONAF) to urban workers (the waste pickers). The idea is to have a meeting in January 2009 with the Ministry and the Forum and the waste pickers to try to devise a scheme that enables the cooperatives to buy food from the family farmers.

With these ideas in hand the representative of the Ministry of Social Development will hold meetings with waste pickers in other states of the country.