What happens when a society overwhelmed by waste turns its rubbish into resistance? 

The photography series Waste Workers of Bahia examines environmental collapse as a daily reality, where trash is unavoidable and resistance emerges through creativity. Environmental activists in Brazil are crafting costumes from discarded materials, calling for coexistence with the land. 

Operating atop an abandoned diamond mine in Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, a now-protected landscape still scarred by extraction, the Grupo Ambientalistas de Palmeiras sorts recyclable materials for redistribution and turns them into costumes for street parades. The public rituals draw on the Brazilian Carnival tradition, where costume and satire have long been used to confront power.

Brazil generates 11 million metric tons of plastic waste each year, placing it fourth on the global league table of plastic polluters. Working within the community, GAP promotes sustainability through education, material reuse, and environmental stewardship. Its members also plant trees and volunteer for the fire services, tackling forest blazes in the ancient, rocky plateau region of Chapada Diamantina. Photographed in 2025, this series insists that waste is not invisible and responsibility cannot be outsourced.