S-lca Pilot Project of the Recycling System in the City of Cuenca, Ecuador

In Ecuador, waste generation represents a great challenge for national and local authorities. Although, waste management is the competence of decentralized autonomous governments (GAD), as in other middle -income countries, these entities are not able to properly deal with the amount of waste produced and their treatment. Therefore, an important informal sector has emerged to support waste recycling, commonly called "recycling." In the city of Cuenca, approximately 600 people participate in the informal recycling sector, of which 80% are women. Only 113 recycling are associated and all of them face harsh social and economic circumstances, these include inappropriate working conditions, risk at risk, social exclusion, exploitation, poverty and lack of access to social security programs. In this context, the social impact of the recycling system in the city of Cuenca will be evaluated from a life cycle. The project is divided into four phases: objective and scope, life cycle inventory, life cycle evaluation and interpretation. Secondary and primary data will be lifted, the latter, through recycling surveys, representatives of recycling and EMAC-EP associations. The expected results are: Social Hotspot, calculation of the social footprint, positive impacts, social risk, impact by actors. The pilot report will be published by the United Nations together with the results of 9 other pilots that develop worldwide.

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