TED Talks : Pimp my ... trash cart?

A man realized that our world has many superheroes, but they are the most often invisible. He takes the example of the catadores in Brasil, workers who collect recyclable materials for living. These people live in poverty and in the dark while their work benefits the entire population. In Brazil, they collect 90 percent of all the waste that's actually recycled.

To collect and transport over 300 kilos of waste, they use "carroças". Carroças are makeshift carts cobbled. The man who explain that is a graffiti artist and activist. In 2007 he tooks his work beyond walls and onto the carroças. He uses carroças as a new urban support for his political and social message. With the time, he giving voice to the catadores. Now, they are famous in the street. He painted over 200 carroças in many countries like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, South Africa, Turkey and even in Japan or USA.

So he created a collaborative movement called Pimp My Carroça, who is a large crowdfunded event to help catadores and their carroças. Professionals, physicians, dentists, podiatrists and many other people helped them to renovate carroças and take care of them.

In two years, over 170 catadores, 800 volunteers and 200 street artists and more than 1,000 donors have been involved in the Pimp My Carroça movement, whose actions have even been used in teaching recycling at a local school.

Henceforth catadores are leaving invisibility behind and becoming increasingly repected and valued.