Climate & Waste Pickers Bulletin, issue nº 7
The Climate & Waste Pickers Bulletin summarizes findings from the monitoring carried out to identify and document the impacts of extreme climate events on the workplaces of waste picker cooperatives and organizations in Brazil. The seventh edition presents the impacts of torrential rainfall, flooding and strong winds that affected Belém in May 2026, impacting three waste picker organizations: ACCSB, CONCAVES and COOTARAL. During the month, 627 mm of rainfall were recorded, a volume 94% above the historical average for May. The impacts included flooding, damage to infrastructure and equipment, interruptions to collection and sorting activities, loss of materials, difficulties commuting to work, and losses in the sale of recyclable materials, with direct effects on workers’ income, health and safety.
The bulletin also highlights how the poor condition of the sorting facilities increased the impacts of the rainfall and points out that waste pickers had not received training to identify risks or adopt emergency measures. Faced with the extreme event, the cooperatives responded mainly with their own resources and improvised solutions. This publication is part of WIEGO’s Extreme Climate Events Monitoring Project, with support from the Mãos Pro Futuro Program.
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