SAO PAULO, Brazil: Shirlei Aparecida de Souza uses her foot to crush the empty cold drink cans she collects in the alleys of a poor Sao Paulo neighborhood: a precarious livelihood critical to Brazil's environmental protection goals.

It is thanks to about a million collectors like her that the country recycled as many aluminum cans as it produced for the first time in 2022, according to data from Recicla Latas, a recycling industry body.

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