‘Trash? Not to Us!’ Environmental Action in Rio Public Housing Complex Denounces Municipal Neglect and Proposes Waste Collection as a Source of Income

Several sites of accumulated waste appear throughout the housing complexes of Barros Filho. Photo: Amanda Baroni Lopes

This year, International Workers’ Day took on a different meaning at the Haroldo de Andrade public housing complex, in the Rio de Janeiro North Zone neighborhood of Barros Filho. Bringing together around 30 people—men and women, adults and children, residents and participants from environmental movements and organizations—the “Trash? Not to Us!” collective action gathered fifteen 200-liter bags of solid waste and six bags of recyclable materials throughout the complex. In addition, the group planted 29 fruit saplings, two Brazilwood seedlings (the endemic tree after which Brazil is named), and two coriander beds in the community’s green space, where composted organic waste is reused for gardening.

According to Nélio Lopes, who leads the Haroldo de Andrade Sustainable Socio-Educational Project (PSSHA), the initiative seeks to secure waste collection services for the housing complex, which has long suffered from neglect by the Rio de Janeiro city government.

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This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas through RioOnWatch.