During the OpenDOTT Consortium Meeting last month, I figured I did not know how to call those objects that people did not want anymore, but were not yet to be destined to recycling nor landfills. The sort of material that either remains sitting in lockers or garages, or in some contexts have proper ways to be redirected or put to proper use. I set to my timelines on twitter and facebook to ask about that, and some responses are compiled/translated below:
A quick survey for my research. In your city/town, how are the materials discarded by citizens but not yet sent to recycling managed? How are they called? I mean old or broken appliances, furniture, electronics etc.
Responses:
- Encombrants (Geneva)
- They are called antiques
Facebook (in English)
A quick survey for my research. In your city/town, how are the materials discarded by citizens but not yet sent to recycling managed? How are they called? I mean old or broken appliances, furniture, electronics etc.
Responses:
- In The Netherlands, only food waste and garden waste is picked up, everything else is dumped on dumpsters on your street. Paper, glass, plastic. Other things like electronics and broken furniture, you have a pass with your ID and that allows you to take these things to be dropped there. If it is something that is not broken and in good condition there is another number, and it will be taken to a second hand shop.
- No / Nobody respects / Brasília
Pergunta rápida para minha pesquisa: na sua cidade, como são gerenciados os materiais descartados pelxs cidadãxs, mas que ainda não vão para a reciclagem? Como eles são chamados? Estou falando de eletrodomésticos, móveis, eletrônicos velhos ou quebrados, etc.
Responses:
- Here in Madrid they are called 'other materials'. There are specific spots to drop them or a phone number you can call to ask the municipality to remove, in the case of large furniture.
- In Santo André there are points to discard various materials such as wood, construction waste, furniture, and specific campaigns for the discard of electronics.
- [replying to the comment above] these discard points are only used by car owners, pickers with their carts or who lives in the vicinity. The administration collects recyclables once a week, with no instructions about how to discard them properly.
- Felipe, do you know Pimp my carroça's Cataki?
- They are not!
- Here in Porto Alegre there used to be efficient discard followed by a campaign of education about the initiative, but it was totally abandoned.
- It seems they will start recycling paper and plastic in Brasília. Glass is harder, I don't know why.
- In Taubaté they call it electronic discard. There was a 'market' for one week receiving, but it was only once. I will look into it. I have seen batteries being accepted in different places.
- In Ubatuba, groups like Doação Ubatuba for something still active. There is also the coop. Whatsapp, messenger or Facebook. Pretty functional.
- In Porto Alegre rich people pass along these materials for their domestic workers and relatives, or charities. Middle class keep objects somewhere in the house thinking of giving them away or repair, and there thay stay. And the poorest try to sell them as junk. In some neighbourhoods as Cidade Baixa, they are put in the sidewalk for other people to collect as is common in Europe. At the same time, we have recyclable collection implemented by a left-wing government more than 4 decades ago. It is a cultural challenge.
- In São Paulo I believe there's none. From what I heard these materials are collected by carroceiros (pickers with carts). There are some small points in the city... but the municipality won't come to pick them [at people's houses]
- In Ubatuba, for furniture, people call a carroceiro that discards what is not worth for recycling on places transformed into dumpsters, such as beside the airport or by some rivers.
- Here in Jabaquara region where I live up to Diadema the used or broken furniture or couches are usually left in the street and stay there for days or weeks deteriorating under the weather. The program called Cata Bagulho happens every two months, when they do. I've seen a similar situation in neighourhoods like Bras, etc. On the peripheries the situation is even worse.
More about it (added 18/10/2019):
- In Catalunya, discards are called andromines. There is a social organisation called Andromines that apparently employs people to work with these materials.
- In the UK, jumble sales and car boot sales are popular alongside charity shops.