The cooperative and its members know this is a step forward in rebuilding and conserving Rio's environment, but for many, this also means their only source of income has gone down the drain.

CNN: Landfill's closure changing lives in Rio

The endless restructurings and mergers have definitely distracted many companies, and created a big brain drain, but the underlying intrinsic productivity potential of many of these groups has gone up, not down, from what I can tell.

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