Recyclable waste collectors: contribuitions to the regional development area from a bibliometric and systematic review of the literature

Abstract

The article proposes a bibliometric and systematic review to map authors, newspapers, countries, themes and research with the purpose of identifying and exploring the characteristics of the literature referring to recyclable waste pickers and picking up theoretical reflections for future research in the area of Regional Development. For that, a mapping of the literature on the Web of Science was carried out with analysis in the VOSviewer software. The results indicate that Brazil is the country with the most prominence for travelers who travel waste pickers. Data converge on topics such as solid waste management in the informal sector and the health of collectors. In addition, the existence of clusters with a thematic approach to the informal sector, informal economy, recycling cooperatives was identified. The main theoretical contributions converge to authors such as Ferri, Chaves and Ribeiro, Moreno-Sánchez and Maldonado, Sasaki et al., Zolnikov, Gutberlet. It is concluded that the scientific mapping reveals a growing interest in research involving the group and has attracted the attention of researchers from different areas. It emphasizes the need for government and civil society actions focused on the formal integration of collectors in solid waste management.