Tucked away in the bustling streets of Sao Paulo, huge stacks of detritus, of almost every imaginable material, tower over Claudine, his children and wives. Kittens and puppies scramble over it as innumerable hands sift through the piles of TVs, fish tanks, cabinets and chairs... Claudines's massive extended family is fed through recycling. "I can't even remember all my kids' names" he chuckles. But from the clutter order emerges, as well as contentment. Claudine teaches his children about the massive value of waste paper, cardboard, aluminium and copper, equipping them with life skills such as rebuilding computers out of spare parts.

We follow Claudines and his undaunted green truck as it meanders through the teeming city streets, collecting and distributing recycling: it is, as Claudines stoically views it, "our cross to bear". Addicted to picking up women as well as waste, Claudines has collected four present wives and three ex-wives while "doing business and making connections." Throughout the course of the film Claudines's ramshackle yet charming family are slowly revealed, each bearing their own idiosyncratic history. He runs an egalitarian household where "all the work is divided equally" although his romantic morals are jokingly branded as "shameless" by one of his wives!

His van may be stacked metres into the air, leaning precariously as it inches away from the pavement, yet Claudines is proud of his solid family business. His children too are positive and ambitious. One is looking to be a lawyer, another a vet. A daughter explains "I'm proud of my father," while a son demonstrates all his father has taught him about mechanics.

Claudines too has ambitions, for a compressor and a larger truck. With a massively curious mind, he visits a recycling plant to get to grips with how Polypropylene is recycled through whirling cogs and noisy pistons to become a dark spiders web of plastic ribbon. "I'm going to start pulling it out of sewers, because the earth doesn't eat it" he concludes.

Claudines is not alone in the hoarding business. Many men and women haul up to a 100kg of recycling on carts in order to make a day's crust. Despite complaints from the mayor's office about hoarders disrupting traffic, Claudines and his compatriots are optimistic. One hauler proudly proclaims "I eat in restaurants!" The haulers support unionisation and Claudines may just be the one to organise them. Though often seen as little more than beggars, Claudines argues there's honour in this work: "People look and they see garbage, but they don't understand what's behind a piece of paper thrown on the ground, or a soda can lying on the sidewalk."

One day he may even set up his own computer store. For now though, the family celebrate life and "becoming famous" with a BBQ. Claudines smiles, "My father raised 18 of us from recycling. I do it with love". Warm and honest, this film is both an inspiring take on human industriousness and a metaphor for human excess.

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Best Feature - Fica, 2010

Best Film - Cinema Planeta Mexico, 2011