Fiona Hurrell – Rio Times, 04/14/2012
Jardim Gramacho in Rio, the largest dump site in Latin America will be closed, leaving some out of work, photo by Andre Gomes de Melo/Imprensa RJ.
Latin America’s largest landfill site, Jardim Gramacho in Duque de Caixas, is set to shut down on May 6th. The closure, which was announced by Mayor Eduardo Paes earlier this week, will come just in time for Rio to host to the Rio+20 UN environmental conference.
Putting an end to decades of environmental strain, the landfill will be transformed in to a park, however the government’s waste department, Companhia Municipal de Limpeza Urbana (COMLURB), has estimated that it will take at least fifteen years for the land to fully recover.
The closure means that many of the people working at the dump site, those who trawl through the landfill recovering materials for recycling, will be out of a job.
*On March 09, 2011, the Brazil Institute held a screening of Waste Land, the Oscar-nominated documentary about artist Vik Muniz’s project to chronicle the lives of garbage pickers in Jardim Gramacho.
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