Mundano’s ‘invisible’ waste-picking superheroes

Brazil – Brazilian graffiti artist Thiago Mundano is living proof that creativity can spark fundamental change in mega-cities and in their inhabitants’ perception of ‘trash’. A meeting with one of the nation’s 800 000 waste pickers – or catadores – resulted in Mundano painting the man’s trash collection cart. Little did he know 10 years ago that more than 300 ‘carroças’ would follow the same brightly-coloured route, leading to the launch of a globally-crowdfunded venture known as Pimp My Carroça.

Mundano now works with a team of 200 street artists, 800 volunteers and more than 1000 donors who help support waste pickers across South America via specially-organised graffiti events. Instead of a charity or a community, people are now calling it a movement. Mundano incorporates slogans ranging from the informative to the provocative, such as: ‘For each tonne of cardboard collected, 20 trees are not cut down’ and ‘A catador is worth more than an environment minister’.

‘Mobile canvases’

Through the makeovers, the artist came to realise that the carts are, in fact, ‘mobile canvases’ that provide an ideal means of spreading the word about social equality as well as recycling. A metropolis the size of São Paulo stands to gain massively from such exposure, according to Mundano, as its 12 million inhabitants collectively produce 18 000 tons of waste every single day which is sorted by roughly 20 000 catadores. Even the Brazilian ministry of labour has admitted that the hard-working ‘informal sector’ is responsible for collecting up to 90% of the material that ends up at recycling sites.

Widespread support

The graffiti gatherings have been growing in popularity and are even attracting recycling tourists from the USA and Japan. Mundano is thankful for the financial support which has allowed countless catadores to get medical aid. Furthermore, the initiative has helped to provide much-needed equipment to make waste collecting easier and safer. ‘Most of them don’t even have basic things like rubber gloves, reflective tape, horns and mirrors,’ Mundano explains.

Pimp My Carroça has inspired schools in Brazil to educate young students about recycling. Meanwhile, Mundano himself has launched an annual contest called the Young Talent Pimp Challenge, which is supervised by experienced catadores and involves teams of young children trying to collect as much waste as possible in 24 hours.

Earning respect

In Mundano’s opinion, Brazil’s catadores are superheroes in a way. ‘But they have the worst of all superpowers: invisibility,’ he says. By becoming part of this ‘amazing mobile art exhibition’, the catadores have succeeded in earning respect, becoming role models and shedding their cloak of invisibility.