( CNN ) -- When trash disappears into the dumpster , where does it go ? A straightforward question for many of us , but in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte there 's seldom a simple answer where garbage is concerned . That 's because the catadores ( trash collectors ) of the ASMARE cooperative are adept at transforming any old disused material into furniture , jewelry or even works of art . `` I have two jobs , '' explained 39-year-old collector Edimar Ferreira . `` I go and collect the trash and then I transform it into art . I make small sofas , wooden benches , tables , and other plastic adornments . '' `` We have a phrase ( at ASMARE ) : ' o seu lixo e o meu luxo , ' ( roughly translated as 'your trash is our luxury , ' ) '' he cheerily added . See also : Brazil 's middle class boom . Catadores like Ferreira are a familiar sight in towns and cities across Brazil -- a motley collection of individuals who sift through mountains of street trash or landfill to locate paper , cans , bottles , metals and other types of recyclable materials . A 2010 estimate by the Business Commitment for Recycling ( CEMPRE ) association stated that there were roughly one million catadores in Brazil , although only a small number work officially for cooperatives and organizations like ASMARE . Many are the formerly homeless , ex-convicts or individuals who have stumbled upon hard times , selling what they find to recycling companies . Arts and crafts . In recent years , however , the cash return for many of Belo Horizonte 's catadores has become too inconsistent to ensure a stable income . The solution that ASMARE -- a professional group representing nearly 200 pickers -- came up with was to get creative with the one material they have plenty of -- trash . Recruiting the help of local artists and volunteers , ASMARE has run an arts program for the best part of a decade where workers are taught how to transform the recyclable items they find during their daily collections . `` The art center started with the purpose of us being able to make our own carts , and then for the catadores ' children to learn how to make crafts and other art pieces with the material collected , '' said Dona Geralda , founder and president of ASMARE . `` The main benefits are the generation of employment and income for the catadores and their children . We ( have now ) started to implement the culture of 'garbage that is not garbage , ' '' added the 63-year-old , who has herself been a catadore since she was eight . See also : Brazil 's thriving African culture . All items created at ASMARE are sold in a shop near the organization 's headquarters , with profits shared equally amongst the catadores . Combining art sales and the money accumulated from selling on recycled materials , an ASMARE worker 's monthly income now averages out a respectable 1,700 Brazilian Reais ( about $ 800 ) . Branching out . Yet although it was one of the first to introduce creative programs ( as well as claiming to be the first catadore cooperative in Brazil ) , the Belo Horizonte outfit is far from alone in its aesthetic endeavors . Other organizations and artists have adopted similarly imaginative tactics in undertaking creative projects with catadores in recent years . In Sao Paolo , a street project called `` Pimp My Carroca '' has been adding colorful graffiti to the wooden carts used by many catadores since last summer . The 2010 Oscar-nominated film Wasteland documented the catadores of Rio de Janeiro 's now closed Jardin Gramacho landfill as they became subjects of works by the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz . The artworks eventually sold for tens of thousands of dollars each . See also : Does Brazil deserve its B for BRIC . According to Mauricio Soares , an artist who heads the ASMARE creative program , helping catadores to produce art is about much more than just the obvious financial or creative benefits . `` In Brazil the catadore is often discriminated against because of their origin , '' Soares said . `` Therefore , linking art to recycling allows them to go to places that they have never been before and they end up having better acceptance because their creative work gives them a good visibility , '' he added . Recycling attitudes . Soares also sees the potential to promote the possibilities of recycling across the country . `` Art through recycling aims to arouse people 's consciousness to think about what trash is or is not , '' Soares said . `` This new consciousness will help us to promote waste reduction . `` When people see a recycled art piece , for instance , on a woman 's neck they may begin to understand that it is not ( just ) trash , '' he added . See also : Send us your favorite pictures of Brazil . This is something that Ferreira strongly agrees with . He points to what he has learned since he began the ASMARE program two years ago as an example of how attitudes to trash can change . `` This experience has made me look at recycling in a different way , '' he said . `` There are materials that I used to throw away that now I keep , because I can already envision making some nice piece with it later . I do n't see the material only as trash anymore . ''
Catadores are private collectors who pick through trash to source recyclable materials . There are an estimated one million catadores across the country . The nonprofit organization is transforming recyclable materials into works of art .