Twenty-two years ago, Martha Elena Iglesias helped found a waster picker cooperative in Colombia called Planeta Verde. Over time, the cooperative has transformed how the local community views waste pickers and a sense of solidarity has developed amongst its members.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many people in the rural areas of Colombia had to flee armed conflicts in the country. Many of them came to Rionegro in the province of Antioquia and found that there was no work for