Chatarra (scrap),2015

The chatarra project is showing the carts of people of Bilbao who harvest scrap metal from the domestic refuse containers. In the city there are many people at risk of social exclusion whose livelihoods depend on collecting objects around the city which they then sell to be recycled. Since the crisis in 2008 we can see more and more “scrap collectors“ in the streets of Spain.

The work of a metal collector is stigmatised in Spanish society, but it gives people a way of feeling useful and reaching a minimum economical standard. Working as a recycler fulfills the common necessity of getting up in the morning and actively forming part of society and social integration.

The photographs in the series show, always from the same point of view, the carts used by the scrap merchants, where they store the objects accumulated during their searches.

The images are accompanied by additional information such as:

Name of collector
value of recycling visible in the image
time spent on collection
middle income per day
year of beginning working collector.

2015