RIO DE JANEIRO — Elaine da Silva Moraes clambers up mounds of abandoned fabric, foam and feathers that minutes earlier were the essence of Rio de Janeiro’s glitzy, multimillion dollar Carnival parades.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Elaine da Silva Moraes clambers up mounds of abandoned fabric, foam and feathers that minutes earlier were the essence of Rio de Janeiro’s glitzy, multimillion dollar Carnival parades.
The creative costumes on display at the all-night Sambadrome parades that ended early Tuesday have made Rio’s Carnival celebration the most famous in the world. But the handmade confections often have a short shelf life.
As the tens of thousands of revelers stream out of the Sambadrome, a surprising number of them immediately abandon their costumes, leaving them strewn on the ground amid a sea of empty beer cans, crushed water bottles and other ordinary trash.
Enter Moraes, a “catadora,” or trash picker, and hundreds of others like her, for whom Carnival represents an annual boon. Dressed in a patchwork of costume parts rescued from the detritus, Moraes filled plastic garbage bags with her treasures — feathers, props, headgear and costly fabrics that she resells or transforms into new costumes or clothing.
The catadores, who include even small children, work swiftly to keep ahead of the crews of garbage men in orange jumpsuits who pitch the piles of costumes and props into trash-compacting trucks.
“I think they’re crazy,” said Moraes, brandishing a limp plastic sword at the throngs of sweaty revelers as they poured out of the Sambadrome and stripped out of their oversize costumes. “They’re literally throwing money away. I wouldn’t dream of throwing money away the way they do.”
Each of the 12 top-tier Samba schools pours at least $3 million annually into over-the-top floats and costumes. The schools receive funding from the state and city governments, from television rights and ticket sales, as well as private sponsors. The O Dia newspaper recently estimated the top schools invested a total of about $42 million in this year’s parade.
The schools often provide free costumes for members who hail from the city’s slums, but tourists can buy the right to participate in the parades by purchasing a costume, which start at several hundred dollars each, a way for the schools to raise even more cash.