Empowering and Insertion of Women in the Recycling Industry

Abstract

The collection of inorganic solid residues carried out by women at municipal dump El Milagro constitutes the perpetuation of their condition of extreme poverty and discrimination by their male peers. The investigation was centered in the empowerment process of some of these women, in order to get to know the development of cognitive, procedural and attitude skills that would allow their insertion in the recycling industry’s value chain. The sample included fifty young, adult and elderly women. The development of skills was carried out through personal development workshops, team work, design of business plans, and training on the organization and operation of solid waste management microenterprises. The development of procedural and cognitive skills increased the volume of collected residues, segregation and gathering of residues of better quality, thus allowing the women to become an intermediate link in the recycling industry’s value chain.