Terrible Journey to the Bangu Dump

In February 2013, Mr. Raimundo Magalhães, had sold all his goods in the city where he lived, Angical do Piauí, a small municipality in the State of Piauí. Its location is simple, since it is in the Microregion of Médio Parnaíba and immersed in the mesoregion of Cetro-Norte Piauiense with an area of 223 km² and its population is estimated in 2013 at 5,200 inhabitants. As is known, Angical do Piauí has a very good geographic position in the central region of the Middle Parnaíba during the festive periods of Angilofolia and Angical Fest, the city's anniversary, Carnival and other festivities. Its main activity is trade, agriculture and fishing.

Raimundo Magalhães, 45 years old, is a merchant, with his warehouse next to his residence, with the name “O popular Raimundo Secos e Molhados”, being married to Matilde dos Reis, with 3 (three) children, José with 18 years old, Mario 16 years old and Fábio 13 years old.

After calculating the sales money, totaling R$ 50,000.00 (fifty thousand reais), Raimundo bought 5 (five) road tickets to Rio de Janeiro. It is true that Raimundo and his family had already agreed to live in the marvelous city, after contacting a cousin of his wife who lives in Bangu, in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro, in the Vila Aliança favela.

In March of that year, they arrived at the Novo Rio Bus Station, which today is just the Rio de Janeiro Bus Station, they got off the bus, and Matilde looked around to see her cousin who was waiting. Without information about the cousin, they stayed more than 4 hours in the place. Soon, a security guard arrived and said that the place is not for passengers. Raimundo identified himself and said he was waiting to see his wife's cousin who lives in Vila Aliança in Bangu. The guard informed that the bus that goes to Bangu is on the other side of the port pier. And that they would have to leave the bus station and take the bus to Bangu.

  The hours passed in a hurry and it was already more than 22 hours that day. Sitting in the luggage and with no other passengers, Fábio fell asleep among the suitcases. Suddenly, a goal stops ahead and reverses. Opportunity in which two armed individuals get out of the car and say it is a robbery.

One of the bandits says:

- Assault Assault. Pass the money paraíba?

Nervous, Raimundo says:

-I don't have any money. I'm a worker in Piauí. Please leave us alone.

The bandit, pointing the gun, says:

-Hand over the sucker money, or I'll shoot those suckers.

-Please do not do that. The money is in the red suitcase.

one of the bandits asked.

-And how much is there?

-45,000.00 (forty-five thousand reais).

Without delay, the robbers opened the suitcase and took the bag of money and left. The wife and children were crying when a car from the city center stops the vehicle:

-Police, all standing on the wall with their hands behind their backs.

- Young man, we are not from here. We were robbed a little while ago and they took all my money.

The other policeman said:

- We don't want to know your story. Where's the drug? If you don't say so, I'll have you all arrested.

As he approached the smallest Fábio, the policeman kicked his legs with brutal force, saying:

-Get up asshole! Spread your fucking legs. Spread your legs and put your hands behind your head. Where are the bundles? Search everyone, Sergeant Andrade, including the suitcases and purses.

The other policeman said:

-Being thinking that we are silly to believe in your conversation, uncle? Does it show where the Piauí devil is? Spread your legs, dammit.

After insults, the cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks that passed by the Cais do Porto, observed the action of the police. Finding nothing in the bags, the police left. The sadness and the lack of assistance from the police made Piauí residents even more scared, who did nothing. Together, they remained until daybreak in the shade of some marquises on the harbor pier.

At 7 am that morning, a young man who was waiting for a bus to Bangu, is moved by the situation told by Raimundo Magalhães and his children, paying for the bus ticket to Vila Aliança in Bangu.

At 7 am that morning, a young man who was waiting for a bus to Bangu, is moved by the situation told by Raimundo Magalhães and his children, paying for the bus ticket to Vila Aliança in Bangu.

When they arrive in the Vila Aliança neighborhood, Matilde looks at her diary and notes her cousin's address, the five of them heading towards his residence with their bags in hand. Upon arriving at the house, she is well received by her cousin Clóvis and his wife. Despite doing 02 B.O, Raimundo asks about the job and Clóvis says he was fired from the service at the municipal hospital Albert Schweitzer where he was cleaning.

Raimundo says:

-Don't worry, we sleep anywhere. And as for the service, I'm even willing to clean the street or cesspool. Don't worry. What I lost, I can regain again.

Clovis articulates:

-Tomorrow, I'm going to the Landfill of Bangu, which is the landfill of Gericinó, located on Estrada de Gericinó next to the Tirici favela, because we are neighbors of the prison. There it is good because we know the price of selling land for you to build your house.

Raimundo Magalhães says:

-Very good. If you lend me the money, I'll pay back interest, and we can also look at the service situation. After all, we are five workforces. If my memory serves me right, this garbage dump in Gericinó, in Bangu, in the West zone of Rio, where a recording of the soap opera “Da cor do sin” was shown on TV, and where the actress Giovanna Antonelli got to know the life of Cris Andrade working in the garbage dump .

Upon arriving at the Bangu Dump, they look for the address of the boss who sells land in the Tirici favela. After being told how to find him, Clóvis goes to a collector and asks:

-How are you? Can you tell me if there is a vacancy for a family here?

The collector replies:

-It's all right. I can't offer anything. But here we have more than three hundred people who live off the landfill. Recycling materials is our life. When do you want to start work? Here we sort glass, paper, cardboard and miscellaneous products day and night. When the Comlurb carts enter the gate, you have to follow along to see where the garbage is going to be disposed of, already separated from the houses, and then it's just a matter of checking and separating.

Clovis says:

-Let's start tomorrow with six people. Me, Mr. Raimundo, his three children and wife.

The scavenger says:

-That's really good. But please don't tell anyone I got you jobs.

-Okay, I understand.

The collector adds:

-Here we work in silence and we can't say anything. People from the Catiri favela use this landfill to dump the bodies of their victims. From Thursday to Sunday night we came across the corpses thrown into the rubbish heaps. Some corpses come wrapped in a blanket, and it was discovered when we opened several garbage residues and a part of the blanket opened and a part of the body appeared. Here is the Baixada Fluminense, where the shots come out without direction, especially at night. We just see these 15 to 20 year olds dying for the police and bandits. And the Bangu prison is right next door, you just have to climb the mountain of garbage to see it.

Clóvis explained everything to Mr. Raimundo Magalhães. And, very early the next day, the six new garbage collectors were already in the mountains of garbage, sharing with the Comlurb carts and the vultures, cockroaches, rats and diseases. José talks with his brother Mario, the following:

-Wow Mário, this place should be well taken care of, because the main thing here is the environment. Yeah, the accumulation of leachate and leakage into the soil is a reality with the bad smell.

Mario adds, stating:

-True, bro! Here there should be a slurry treatment plant, avoiding filling the pond with slurry.

José tells young Mario;

-Bro, I see buckets and tractors in the background. They must be working on the future station. My teacher put it on the test for us to study about the National Solid Waste Policy of Law nº 12.305/2010. Don't you remember it was in the paper? Well, the Brazilian State has put in place several public actions to combat the improper destination of household waste, among other residues. And the Federal government set a deadline for all dumps in Brazil to exterminate with this joke of making Brazilian cities the place for dumps.

Mario says:

-Yea. I just heard about it. Our job here is to recycle the garbage before it goes to the slurry pond. We can make good money here. Separating aluminum, iron, copper, paper and cardboard from food that comes in the trash.

Jose says:

-Mário, I want to start a recycling cooperative. So we can earn more and not even work. We are far from our Piauí. Now we are workers, that is to say collectors of leftovers and waste. The government or private entities should give us a course on recycling. After all, we are going to work here on our own, without a formal contract and without a boss. You know bro, I imagine dad and mom at the age they are?

Mario says:

-José, the government only knows how to talk about social and environmental issues, however, it does not take the human rights situation forward. Where is the government going to place the 300 collectors from the Gericinó landfill? These people have been living off the landfill for many years. These people survive from the dump. There is no alternative for them or us. I know that we work in informality, unhealthy service, without a formal contract and without INSS. Here you work and have no reference and no management to fight prices. Imagine, here turning into a waste treatment plant. How will this contingent of workers without income live? I know we are poor, we were robbed in Rio de Janeiro with R$45,000.00. And you know that poor families are far from the government, they don't have resources and means.

Jose says:

-I imagine the men and women collectors who came from the former Gramacho Dump and are here in the same banner as ours. I just know that it's the most perverse way for us to be scavengers at the Lixão, to live in this unfair and cruel toil with what's no good. But it's the way. No one employs Mom and Dad anymore. We young people can venture into the streets, opening ditches and cleaning cesspools, even knowing these impurities. If there are conditions, I will finish my elementary school and start a cooperative to compete with the others in that place.

The years passed quickly, and the municipal government of Rio de Janeiro inaugurated the Sanitary Landfill of Gericinó – Bangu Dump. José, son of Raimundo Magalhães, already had their own residence, as well as a Recycling company where they employed one hundred workers, six automatic garbage trucks, worked with the municipality and other interested parties. Knowing that the company was called “Irmãos da Reciclagem Ltda”, whose company buys and sells recyclable material such as: Electronic waste, paper, cardboard, scrap metal, tires, plastic, PET bottles, cans, copper, iron, aluminum, steel and etc.

José and brothers' company made the payment in cash, and carried out the collection in the city of Bangu and other places, always respecting the environment in the collection of recyclable garbage and payment on the spot.

Only in this way, José gathered his brothers and they were able to give comfort to their parents, including a brand new car at the door of their house. Forgetting all the frustrations that happened in Rio de Janeiro - RJ.