Urban waste re-cycle in middle towns: a case study on the Southwest of Bahia

Abstract

This article analyses the social economic and spatial organization of the recycling trade which clearly impresses a new character to the management of cities. In the urban scene of Bahia´s State, the towns of Jequié e Vitória da Conquista have been configured as regional centers which polarizes these activities. This configuration provides in its social and economic basis a net of relations which are settled within the formal and informal economy with characteristics of the developing economies. In the economic flowing of the recycling materials, is showed that the interrelation of cities suggests more emphasis on regional policy making in order to contribute to the economic structure. It refers to ask to other kind of growth based on local power, interacting from one side the municipality, and from the other, economics agents, junkers and the waste cooperatives as urban agents essential to the dynamic process of regional space.