THE
ART
OF
RECYCLING
A
.
Brazilian
artist
Vik
Muniz
uses
everyday
objects
in
unusual
ways
.
his
art
,
Muniz
makes
people
think
differently
about
their
everyday
lives
?
even
their
own
garbage
.
B
.
In
2007
,
Muniz
worked
on
a
two
-
year
project
at
one
of
the
largest
in
the
world
.
Until
its
closure
in
2012
,
Jardim
Gramacho
received
about
70
percent
of
the
garbage
from
Rio
de
Janeiro
.
3
,
000
garbage
pickers
,
known
as
catadores
,
worked
there
.
Their
job
was
to
hunt
through
the
garbage
for
recyclable
cans
,
bottles
,
and
other
materials
.
They
then
made
money
by
selling
the
objects
to
recycling
companies
.
C
.
The
catadores'
work
was
dirty
and
,
and
most
of
them
only
received
between
$20
and
$25
a
day
.
the
hard
conditions
,
many
catadores
were
proud
of
their
work
.
Valter
dos
Santos
,
a
worker
at
Jardim
Gramacho
for
more
than
25
years
,
told
Muniz
:
"
I
am
proud
to
be
a
picker
.
I
try
to
explain
to
people
[
that
recycling
prevents
]
great
harm
to
nature
and
the
.
People
sometimes
say
,
'But
one
single
[
soda
]
can
?
'
One
single
can
is
of
great
importance
!
[
T
]
hat
single
can
will
make
the
difference
.
"
D
.
Muniz
became
friends
with
dos
Santos
and
other
catadores
.
They
him
to
take
their
photographs
at
the
landfill
,
where
they
posed
for
artistic
portaits
.
For
example
,
Muniz
photographed
a
landfill
worker
in
the
style
of
a
famous
French
painting
,
The
Death
of
Marat
.
The
workers
then
helped
Muniz
create
images
of
these
photos
on
the
floor
of
his
studio
.
They
used
material
from
the
landfill
to
add
color
and
to
the
images
.
E
.
Why
create
such
huge
images
using
garbage
?
Muniz
says
he
wanted
to
"
change
the
lives
of
people
with
the
same
materials
they
deal
with
every
day
.
"
A
photograph
of
his
recreation
of
the
French
painting
sold
for
£28
,
000
(
$50
,
000
)
at
a
London
art
.
Muniz
gave
the
money
to
the
catadores
workers'
organization
.
F
.
In
2010
,
British
-
Brazilian
director
Lucy
Walker
created
a
movie
about
Muniz's
project
called
Waste
.
The
film
received
many
awards
and
helped
make
people
of
the
garbage
collectors'
lives
.
The
catadores
also
began
to
see
themselves
differently
.
"
Sometimes
we
see
ourselves
as
so
small
,
"
says
Irma
,
a
cook
at
Gramacho
,
"
but
people
out
there
see
us
as
so
big
,
so
beautiful
.
"