Solidary and inclusive recycling: challenges in the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The University-Community Projects Inclusive and Solidary Recycling of PUC Minas has been developed since 2020 through the Remote School System (RLR), in view of the context of the pandemic. The Project seeks to carry out actions to support the emancipation of the cooperators, both in the management aspect, in order to assist the development of the association, as well as in the aspect of human development, seeking improvements in the quality of life of these workers, and the expansion of their rights as citizens and as urban environmental agents providing essential environmental services for sustainability. Thus, in order to achieve its objectives, the actions were carried out through the extensionist team, based on the principles of the so-called “Inverted University-Community project” and the “Ecology of Knowledge”. Three action axis were developed: Management, Communication and Health, which sought to raise the demands of the cooperatives of waste pickers involved in the project. In view of the performance of the Project team, there is a demand to strengthen the self-esteem of the cooperators and the understanding that they are protagonists of their own economic and solidarity enterprise, in addition to the need for a greater mobilization of civil society for the strengthening of selective collection. It is noted that, although it involves new learnings and new approaches, to work in a remote system, in a critical and emancipatory way, can be carried out, even if taking into account the context of digital exclusion of waste pickers.