Businesses try to solve Brazil trash problem

Emerging economy has growing trash problem, with 60 per cent of rubbish ending up in landfills.

In Brazil “catadores” are people who work for co-operatives and pick through trash for valuables to recycle.

Although co-operatives are key to the recycling system, only two per cent of Brazil’s domestic waste ends up being recycled. Sixty per cent of municipal Brazilian waste ends up in open-air landfills.

The government has made it mandatory for all states to have a sustainable trash plan by 2014 – and that is opening up new doors for creative business.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reports from Sao Paolo.

Source: Al Jazeera