According to studies of accessibility in Chile show that the country is aging, by 2050 the population of the third age will increase to more than double where, in addition, the third of that group will develop some type of disability, with the physical type prevailing. Under this problem, Chile has modified his regulatory building body (OGUC) in 2016 establishing new design standards in order to have homes with basic characteristics of accessibility universal. But these modifications are not retroactive in housing policy. Because of this, the present study analyzes the incorporation of accessibility standards into social and private housing that are already built. Technically, it discusses basic solutions to comply with the regulatory approaches and then analyze the economic impact of the solutions, along with the modifications of non-structural elements for regulatory compliance without changing the useful surface of the housing. Showing to achieve accessibility in an existing private home the cost can increase by 0.08 UF/m2 and for social housing by 0.05 UF/m2. The study shows that with a good projection of the evolution of the people who will inhabit the houses, in conjunction with decisions from the design stage, they can have affordable housing at a low cost preventing the owner have to make large investments for adapt his house to any situation of disability that may be present throughout life.

The economic activity of recycling belongs to an unfortunate and marginalized segment of society in Colombia. This fact translates in high rates of informality and a general perception about people that work in this activity, which come usually from extreme poverty, burdened by discrimination, drug addiction, and rejection. The goal of this research was to determine the most significant factors impacting levels of society and economics. For this purpose, we carried out a mixed analysis in the chain of the recycling sector in Neiva, an intermediate city. Because of the informality of waste pickers’ union, official information and field survey were conducted to identify the waste commercialization establishments. The collection and transportation process were identified, and a survey was applied to 50 waste pickers and ten recycling companies. Seventy-two percent of the population is constituted by male gender, older than 25 years, in an unsafe condition, and with labor intensity of 8 hours per day (average). On the other hand, forty percent of companies have labor-related personnel, which confirms a high level of informality in the sector. The most commercialized product is cardboard, and the vast majority only purchase and commercialize the material.