CLIMATE POWER
The work of waste pickers’ cooperatives, movements and community organizations generated bio-inputs for agroecological production, linking climate justice to food sovereignty.
The Peoples’ Summit transformed the treatment of more than 10 tons of waste generated from November 12 to 16 into a political demonstration that the answers to the climate crisis emerge from the territories themselves. The initiative ensured full waste management, valued the labor of waste pickers, and earned the event the Zero Waste Award, national recognition that just environmental management is only possible with popular participation and infrastructure built alongside the cooperatives.
Throughout the five days of programming at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), the operation was structured around key pillars — popular recycling, agroecology, and Zero Waste practices — and organized in three axes: Cleaning, Sorting and Destination, and Environmental Education.
“In the cleaning axis, we had the strength of women from the solidarity economy and the UFPA team, who ensured the daily care of the spaces. The political dimension here is direct — when cleaning is carried out by popular collectives, it generates income, autonomy, and dignity,” explained Kallen Oliveira, coordinator of the Waste Working Group and member of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST).
“In the sorting and destination axis, we worked with Central da Amazônia and five waste pickers’ cooperatives. The experience showed, once again, that cooperatives master social technologies that work — careful manual separation, organized material flow, maximum recovery of recyclables. All of this comes from knowledge accumulated over decades and must be recognized as popular science,” she added.
“And in the environmental education axis, the youth — children of cooperative members, scholarship students, and volunteers — shared information with the public, collected data for academic research, and showed, above all, that behavioral change is born from direct dialogue and everyday presence,” she concluded.
The model articulated cooperatives, youth, waste pickers, and universities in an operation that combined technical capacity, popular mobilization, and a political choice to show that there can be no climate justice without justice for those who care for life and for nature’s commons.
The operation was led by the Waste Working Group, which brought together the MST, the Tapanã Women’s Movement, the State Food and Nutrition Security Council, and Central da Amazônia — composed of the cooperatives Concaves, Filhos do Sol, Catasalvaterra, Cocamar, and Cocadout. Support from the Ministry of Labor and Income and UFPA, through FADESP, ensured the necessary resources to build infrastructure and mobilize teams.
To make the strategy viable, the Carolina Maria de Jesus Waste Center was set up inside UFPA. The space served as a shared warehouse where all materials were sorted, separated, and organized for final destination. More than 170 people worked directly in waste management and environmental education throughout the Summit.
Kallen Oliveira notes that the experience directly challenges the standard model of large events. “While official COP30 spaces rely on market-driven solutions, we showed that organized communities have the capacity to treat waste with responsibility and dignity,” she said.
The waste center also became a permanent educational hub, where children of waste pickers, university students, cooperative members, and volunteers carried out educational activities, guided visitors, and conducted interviews across the event. Scholarship students and the youth team were trained by UFPA faculty and cooperative educators, generating qualitative research data on participants’ environmental perceptions.
Among the youth educators were Isabela Baia and Emilly Bastos Baia, who highlighted the urgent need for stronger public orientation on proper waste disposal.
“We are working with environmental education. Most people come to the COP but don’t understand the process. We need to educate them so we won’t keep facing the same disposal problems,” said Isabela.
“Many people don’t have access to information and end up throwing everything together. When that happens, it makes the work of cooperatives much harder,” Emilly added.
Débora Baia, from the Concaves cooperative, explained that the work gained even more visibility through the Reciclômetro Concaves, a social technology that publicly displays the daily amount of waste generated.
“For the Summit, we started using the Reciclômetro. Paper, plastic, glass, organic waste — everything is weighed and updated daily. It’s also environmental education, because people begin to understand how much waste the event produces. It generates income, jobs, and, most importantly, directs materials toward recycling while protecting the environment,” she said.
For Kallen, the experience reveals something profound:
“The solution to the climate crisis will not come from profit — it will come from organized people who know the land and care for it.”
SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY, COMPOSTING AND POPULAR ECONOMY
All waste streams were processed within UFPA. Selective waste collectors were installed across the campus, sending materials directly to the sorting warehouse. Recyclables were distributed among the cooperatives, ensuring income generation. Organic waste went through accelerated composting technology operated by Concaves.
The approach reinforced the central role of waste pickers in the environmental chain. Proper waste treatment prevented materials from being sent to landfills and helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Composting returned nutrients as bio-inputs for agroecological production, directly linking climate justice to food sovereignty.
The experience demonstrated that effective environmental policy requires popular participation, public infrastructure, and direct investment in those who already safeguard the territories — especially in the Amazon.
“Having a recycling center inside the event was essential because it helped people understand what counts as organic, reject, or recyclable. This is the material generated in a space discussing climate change. There is no climate justice without waste pickers. Recognition hasn’t fully come yet, but we’ve been doing this long before any COP,” emphasized Vânia Nunes, president of the CataSalvaterra Marajó cooperative.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 70,000 people circulated through the event
- 170 workers involved in all processes
- 5 cooperatives working in partnership
- More than 10 tons of recyclable and organic waste managed
- 1 Carolina Maria de Jesus Waste Center operating sorting, treatment, and environmental education
PHOTO: BRENO ORTEGA – MST