DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v13i1.19436 Cienc Cuid Saude 2014 Jan/Mar; 13(1):20-26 _______________ * PhD in Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo. Adjunct Professor, Stricto sensu Program in Health Sciences (Unochapecó) and Nursing Department (Udesc). E-mail: lferraz@unochapeco.edu.br ** PhD in Sociology, Universidade Política Católica PUC-SP. Adjunct Professor, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp). E-mail: maraandrea@unifesp.br *** PhD in Biology, Universidade de Barcelona. Adjunct Professor, Stricto sensu Program in Health Sciences (Unochapeco). E-mail: assunta@unochapeco.edu.br THE LUDIC AND SOLIDARY VISION OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WHO COLLECT RECYCLABLE MATERIALS Lucimare Ferraz* Mara Helena de Andrea Gomes** Maria Assunta Busato*** ABSTRACT This study aims at presenting the reasons which lead children and adolescents to work as recyclable materials collectors. This study is characterized by being a qualitative study, delineated by a descriptive study. Two children and 20 adolescents who collect recyclable materials took part in this study. The data was collected through semi- structured interviews and focal group in January and February 2009. The data was studied by content analysis, through the thematic analysis technique, which consists in identifying the meaningful content nuclei from the presence or the frequency of the theme which composes the text, since it is related to the objectives or research questions. Through the analysis, the following reasons which lead these children and adolescents to work as collectors of recyclable materials are the following: to help their parents at work, to provide financial sources to the family; to go out and to have fun. In the end of this study, we concluded that the work situation and the entertainment of these kids could not be separated. Work and entertainment, home and street, are polarizations which are not applicable to this group, since they are constituted mutually and conform to their lives. Keywords: Child labor. Motivation. Solid waste segregators. INTRODUCTION Child labor is a frightening reality for dimensions that presents and by the magnitude of its occurrence. In Brazil are 4.5 million children between 5 and 17 years old who work in economic activities, representing 10.2% of the population in this age range, according to the current portrait done by the National Research for Sample of Domiciles (PNAD) of 2008. Among the activities developed, 35.5% work in agriculture and 51.6% are employees or domestic workers. Their circumstances meet the economic-regional criteria, the northeastern region has the highest rate (12.3%), followed by the southern region (11.9%); while the Southeast region has the lowest percentage (7.9%). Among the 5 to 17 years old boys, 13.1% work; and the girls are 7.1%, a fact realized in all regions of the country (1). Poverty is an undeniable explanation for child labor, condition which requires both parents using their children as domestic labor as to offer them in the labor market to increase the family income. Considering the social aspect, it is observed that children and adolescents are working to ensure a basic income for survival (2) . This situation ends up making a future cause of poverty, once the child who works will present an education level lower than the final reached by those who do not work. It is a situation that tends to reproduce so long as they remain an alternative to certain segments of workers to remain in the sphere of work, although in poor condition, as an alternative for survival to a contingent of non- specialized workers and/or outside the labor market. As for the precarious work collecting of garbage, in addition to being an activity carried out under the worst working conditions, is the very precariousness conditional upon use of child labor (3) . It is true that the nature of child labor is rooted in poverty, inequality and social exclusion, but its effects propagate through all dimensions of life, because the early work reflects negatively on children's health (4) . On the relevance of the theme "child labor", we present a study whose objective was to know the reasons that lead children and adolescents to work in the collection of recyclable materials.