Plastic gold

“Plastic gold” is a project launched in 2021 in the city of Cuiabá, which documents the daily lives and importance of the work of solid waste collectors. The title refers to the metaphor that inspires the project: plastic, a material that is a symbol of consumer society, when collected and recycled, becomes a source of income and dignity — a true “gold” in the hands of those who transform it. During the first years of the project, I followed the daily lives of collectors at the old landfill in the city of Cuiabá, which was officially deactivated in 2024. Between 2024 and 2025, I traveled between the Brazil cities of Cuiabá -Mato Grosso and Curitiba -Paraná, recording the work of cooperatives, spaces where organized collectors transform what would otherwise be trash into sustainable opportunities. The project reveals personal stories of those who found, in collecting recyclables, a way to rebuild their lives — men and women who, despite their social invisibility, are protagonists in the fight against pollution and in building a fairer future. and ecological.