WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Capitalism always dreams up euphemisms to disguise the horror that is the buying and selling system, but we doubt if this change of name makes the plight of workers forced into this occupation any easier to bear.
"Jose Luis Gonzalez, 60, has been called many things — almost none of them nice — in his 40 years working the streets of Lima, Peru's sprawling capital. "They call us vultures or scavengers most of the time, but sometimes they are meaner, saying we are thieves, criminals. It has never been easy work," he says. Gonzalez is one of an estimated 100,000 people in Peru who make a living diving through garbage to collect refuse — paper, metal, glass — that can be resold for a profit. It is a hard scrabble life, but one thing positive may now be handed to him and his fellow trash sifters: a new name for their profession. Early each morning, he mounts his modified tricycle cart, pedalling through the streets of the seaside district of Barranco in search of treasures. He forgoes a shrill horn for his booming voice, shouting for glass, paper or used items that he can resell. "You have to be considerate and not make a mess. If you cause trouble, the police will take your cart, and then you're stuck," he says. On a typical day, which usually includes six hours' collecting goods and two hours' sorting and selling items to middlemen at a municipal lot, he clears around $3.50. ...Now, the new National Movement of Recyclers of Peru is hoping to change that. Founded six months ago, the group has an ambitious plan that would double income levels while helping the country's municipal government deal with the problem of solid waste. The first step is changing the image Peruvians have of this army of cart-riding men and women, promoting the word recycler instead of more traditional and derogatory terms like garbage picker and scavenger. "The movement increases self-esteem. Society has always scorned recyclers, seeing them as the last rung on the ladder," says Galo Flores, who provides support to the movement through a local organization, Ciudad Saludable (Healthy City). (Tme.com, 18 February) RD