Participatory design depends on the involvement of people to create or improve their working environments. This article summarizes the results of an action research project carried out in response to a demand for a rapid relocation of an Association of Recyclable Material Collectors in Ouro Preto, which is made up entirely of women. The research is based on an analysis of the work and uses participation as a means of designing the work and developing the organization’s activities. It is a participatory project based on the use of intermediary objects to encourage collective decisions about work. The study is set in the environment of selective waste collection, marked by informality and precarious working conditions, but also by a fraternal spirit and openness to creativity. The results show that improvisations are necessary in a short window of project time. In addition, the social relationships between the actors in the territory permeate the entire process from the moment the demand is created, and it is this co-construction that favors the meeting of worlds that promotes transformations in the work.