Waste sorting social technology in Brazilian informal Materials Recovery Facilities

It is commonly accepted that the recycling and reuse of solid waste materials in developing countries has the potential to create many social, environmental and financial benefits. Given that the majority of recycling in these locations is carried out informally by waste pickers, it is also recognised that their inclusion into formal service provision could be the most efficient way of maintaining and increasing the recycling rates of a city. In the absence of sophisticated equipment, the informal recycling sector (IRS) has developed a wealth of self-taught knowledge and skills for manually identifying and processing waste materials. Using primary and secondary data gathered from a materials recovery facility (MRF) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, this study describes the so called ‘social technology’ techniques used to sort municipal waste materials by a cooperative of informal sector recycling workers. This involves identifying and separating 17types of plastic polymers by visual and tactile sorting skills. The methods presented are compared and contrasted with manual sorting techniques used mainly in the near past in the UK. To conclude, the study discusses whether these techniques provide a viable method for increasing recycling rates at scale in the Global South.