A cooperative of recycling material is been formed inside the Prestes Maia building, in São Paulo. The collection and the detachment of the recycled materials happend and every floor, which means that the residents of each floor are responsable with the work of collection and the detachment. When they start to sell this material, 80% of the budget will remain for the people who made the worked, and the 20% left will remain for the squat, being the use of this common money decided in assembly. Since untill a while ago the residents didn't pay for eletricity, one of the possibilities is redirect this 20% budget for the payment of the light.

The meetings about the project happens every Monday, 7:30 pm, in the common area of the squat, next to the library. In these meetings the residents study environmental questions, learn which material are recycle, and how to do the detachment, besides talk about the importance of the cooperative as a work and as a generation of yield.

To first meeting happened June 26th, but the architect Fabio Kahn, one of the suporters of the initiative, remembers that "the own building is already a product of the urban recycling". The resident Márcia Maria adds: "In the beginning this was completely destroyed, had trash till the roof. Did not have water, did not have light. Was necessary 19-20 full trucks to take the debris from here". Before been occupied, the building was abandoned for over 20 years, without fulfill any social function. Still under threat of eviction, the residents expect that the cooperative of recycling be one more example to stimulate the reform of the building and its consolidation as a popular dwelling.

Prestes Maia Squat (blog of the Magazine Caros Amigos)

About the recycling of the urban space, read the newspaper The Independent 1, p. 7:>/b>
Occupy, resist and pressure the government: movements of workers and homeless aim a path to supply the housing deficit of the urban areas

This article has been originaly published on Indymedia Brasil