The Conference
Attendance at the conference was about 400 people, mostly leaders of organizations of catadores from across the state and municipal government representatives. There were also representatives from various NGOs and businesses. The three days included panel discussions, debates, and focus groups. Also, outside of the conference space under a large tent, the CMRR set up demonstrations of recycling equipment used by organizations of catadores. The businesses who produce the equipment marketed their goods and interested catadores and municipal technicians could get a chance to see how the technologies work. Equipment included presses, conveyor belts (for sorting), grinders and gas-powered carts.
The ultimate goal of the conference was to brainstorm and discuss ideas regarding the implementation of recycling programs through organizations of catadores and then create a "final document" outlining as many of these suggestions as possible. During the conference, the president of the Foundation for the Environment (FEAM), an organ of the State Ministry of the Environment, presented the State Recycling Plan, which was then "approved" by the assembly through a round of applause.
Generally speaking, I tend to be a bit skeptical of big conferences and events because I feel like very rarely are meaningful ideas actually discussed and debated. It seems to me like the ideas tend to be agreed upon ahead of time between a small group of actors and that most of the conference is more of a show to give an appearance of greater democratic participation. After all, how can you really have a meaningful debate regarding specific aspects of aproposal in a group of 400 people? This conference seemed to follow a similar script. I'm not saying that I disagreed with the ideas discussed or the final products (the Final Document and the State Recycling Program, which seem to heavily overlap), and I did find some of the panel discussions and focus groups interesting and informative. But in terms of the practical effect of moving the movement forward, I didn't find the whole exercise all that useful. But, as always, I loved the theater and music performances from the catadores, which I think do an incredible job of instilling pride and excitement regarding the movement in general.
That being said, I do think it is important to have this sort of large, state-level conference to provide a launching point to expand and improve state coordination and mobilize all actors involved. In that sense, I think the practical benefit of the conference was less the specific generation of ideas and proposals, and more the general impetus it will provide as we continue to develop our programs in the future.
Public Service Provision and the Future of Government-Catador Partnerships
The biggest idea to come out of the conference was the goal of transforming the current relationship between municipal governments and organizations of catadores. Right now these programs often function as social projects, with the municipal government providing support and funding and limited income coming only through the sale of recyclables on the private market. However, right now catadores also provide a public service for the community by collecting, sorting and reinserting recyclables into the supply chain of raw materials. This public service should be the responsibility of the municipal government, but currently it is performed not by government workers but rather by catadores who are not even reimbursed for the positive externality they are creating within their communities. A new proposal presented during the conference was to create a "Recycling Grant" where municipal governments would reimburse catadores for the public service they provide. In addition, the hope is to turn organizations of catadores into public service providers that sign formal contracts with municipal governments to handle recycling services for the cities.
Basically, this process implies two fundamental transformations. First, municipal governments would finally have an explicit obligation to create recycling programs in their communities and designate sufficient resources to that end. Second, organizations of catadores would have to develop formal, business-like structures that enable them to be efficient service providers for municipal governments.
Without a doubt, this is an admirable goal and one that I believe we have to work toward. But I do have some serious reservations about the methods being proposed. In several conversations, people have admitted to me that the idea of the "Recycling Grant" really came about from brainstorming about how to guarantee more income for the catadores. I certainly support the idea of catadores being reimbursed for the public service they currently provide, but this model seems too simplistic to me. If we are really going to say that recycling is a public service that is the responsibility of the municipal government, then our goal must be to create integrated waste management systems that adequately dispose of trash and recycle as much material as possible. The idea is to increase recycling to its maximum capacity, which means creating bold new initiatives and not continuing with business as usual. A simple cash transfer from municipal governments to organizations of catadores will not achieve this goal.
If the bigger picture initiative is to obligate governments to accept responsibility for adequate integrated waste management and then contract out these services, then I believe we need to vastly increase the capabilities of the organizations of catadores. I am still learning about contracting for waste management services in general, but I have a hard time believing that it would be possible for catadores to sign contracts just for disposal of inorganic recyclable materials while everything else is left to a separate private contractor, especially given the fragile nature of source separation programs (i.e. having people separate their recyclables into separate bins) in most municipalities. I believe that to truly be effective partners of municipal governments, organizations of catadores will need to learn how to handle more material, such as collecting organic materials and recycling them through composting and/or generation of biogas. Otherwise, the catadores will continue to be marginal actors in the waste management sector occupying a small niche of managing inorganic recycling (which makes up approximately 30% of total waste generated in most urban communities).
However, the bigger issue, and one I plan to revisit often in this blog, has less to do with which materials are handled by the catadores and more to do with their organizational capacity. Throughout my time here I have been amazed time and again by the strength, resilience and pride of the catadores and by what they have been able to accomplish within such a short time frame. The ability of these associations and cooperatives to survive and develop under such difficult circumstances is truly remarkable. Yet I am often left worried if this movement as it is currently constituted has a ceiling.
It is wonderful that the organizations of catadores are staffed and managed by the catadores themselves and are focused on the independence of the movement and solidarity among its members. But at the same time, most of the catadores have little formal education or experience with administration or financial management. As a result, there is an acute lack of business expertise within the organizations that undermines their ability to grow into more formal enterprises. These are not typical start-up companies: the cooperatives and associations often have explicit goals of equality, inclusion and democracy that conflict with traditional business models that emphasize hierarchy, cost-cutting and competitive incentive structures. I strongly admire these characteristics and I think there is a lot of value in this movement, but I worry at times that this will hold back the catadores from ever developing the ability to be a formal business that can sign contracts with municipal governments and act reliably and professionally within the framework of a public-private partnership.
So while I absolutely support the goal of formal contracts for service provision, I worry that we may be putting the cart before the horse and having these organizations assume a responsibility that they are not yet prepared for. I will return to the topic of organizational capacity and business models in future posts about the CATAUNIDOS network.
Pictures
Luciano (INSEA President) presenting during a panel discussion
Music performance by MNCR representatives
Our CATAUNIDOS exhibit outside the conference hall
Our CATAUNIDOS exhibit outside the conference hall
Demonstration of conveyor belt for sorting recyclables
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