BVRio: A cooperative approach to waste management

From malls and supermarkets to hospitals and condominiums, waste cooperative Coopama has confidently grown its reach and plastic recovery rate in Rio de Janeiro through an Alliance-funded pilot to increase its capacity. More capital has since flowed into the initiative, sustaining its impact.

A Cooperative Approach to Community Benefit While Dealing with Plastic Waste

In Maria da Graça in north Rio de Janeiro, waste pickers from the Coopama cooperative, recognisable by their forest green tee-shirts, haul themselves onto collection trucks that fan out towards shopping malls, schools, hospitals, and condominiums in the neighbourhood. Since Alliance funding allowed for three rental trucks to be added to their existing one in mid-2022, Coopama’s operations have expanded dramatically, with the cooperative doubling the number of its collection points, and collecting four times the amount of recyclables.

Under the BVRio initiative led by Circular Action BV, residential and commercial enterprises that have separated waste available for pick up can post this online via the waste trading app KOLEKT. Once alerted, the cooperative sends a truck to make the collection. The recyclables are then sorted, baled, and sold to aggregators and recyclers, with the proceeds kept by the cooperative.

Brazil is the world’s fourth largest producer of plastic waste, and Rio de Janeiro, its second largest city, generates more than 9 thousand tonnes of municipal solid waste per day. Of this, just 0.5% is diverted from landfills. Waste pickers are responsible for 90% of the recovery of recyclables, usually on foot, dragging carts, or on motorbikes.

Besides increasing plastic recovery and recycling rates in the metropolitan region, BVRio aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of those on the lowest rungs of Brazil’s social ladder. With the additional trucks, for instance, Coopama now has the capacity to collect larger volumes of recyclables from sources like condominiums and shopping malls, and to provide this service reliably, something that would be far more difficult for waste pickers on foot.

The cooperative has doubled the number of its collection points and increased the number of collection trucks from one to three. As a result, it is now collecting four times the amount of recyclables.

Our funding enabled BVRio to lease the vehicles used to pick up the waste and lay the foundations for a cooperative-based approach to tackle plastic waste in the city. The initial success of the project has paved the way for BVRio to secure further funding from other sources to sustain the impact.

The project will continue to build on its success, with a view towards further enhancing the collection at the cooperative. The same cooperative model will also be scaled and replicated at additional small and medium-sized cooperatives in Rio de Janeiro.