cartonero
Etymology
From Spanish cartonero.
cartonero means A person in Latin America who collects discarded waste, such as cardboard, to reuse or resell. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.
Why “cartonero” is a great word
CARTONERO — [Noun] An informal waste-picker in Latin America who scavenges for discarded cardboard and other recyclables for subsistence resale. From Spanish cartonero, from cartón (“cardboard”) + -ero (agent suffix). Unlike a reciclador, which implies a formalized role in the recycling chain, or a basurero, a municipal sanitation employee, the cartonero is an autonomous agent of the informal economy. It is the silhouette pushing a groaning, handmade cart before dawn; the patient hands sifting through bins for the dull gleam of corrugated fiber; the nightly pilgrimage through alleyways, building a precarious tower of value from what a city has cast aside—a stark algebra of necessity, where one society's discard becomes another's livelihood.
noun
- A person in Latin America who collects discarded waste, such as cardboard, to reuse or resell.“Tens of thousands of the unemployed scavenged the streets collecting cardboard, an enduring image that gave rise to the term “cartoneros.””