Millions of people worldwide make a living collecting, sorting, recycling, and selling materials that someone else has thrown away. Vital actors in the informal economy, waste pickers provide widespread benefits to their communities, their municipalities and the environment. In many countries, waste pickers supply the only form of solid waste collection. However, they often face low social status, deplorable living and working conditions, and little support from local governments.

Definition
The term waste pickers can be broadly defined as people who reclaim “reusable and recyclable materials from what others have cast aside as waste” (Samson 2009). Waste pickers can range from poor people rummaging through garbage in search of necessities such as food to informal private collectors of recyclables who sell to middlemen or businesses, as well as organized pickers/sorters linked to unions, cooperatives or associations.

Waste pickers may collect household waste from the curbside, commercial and industrial waste from dumpsters, or litter from streets and urban waterways. Some live and work on municipal dumps – as many as 20,000 people in Kolkata, India; 12,000 in Manila, Philippines; and 15,000 in Mexico City, Mexico (Medina 2005).

Other waste pickers work as sorters in recycling warehouses or as processors in recycling plants owned by membership-based organizations (MBOs) (Dias 2010). Some are involved in cross-border activities, such as the Mexican waste pickers who work on both sides the US border (Medina 2007).

Urban Story

Nohra Padilla - Third Generation Recycler and Advocate for Organizing the Working Poor
By Melanie Samson

Nohra was born into a family of recyclers (waste pickers), but when her livelihood was threatened she organized with her fellow recyclers to form a cooperative that struggled to make their voices heard.

Read more... >>

Recent Publications

Mapping of the Policy Context and
Catadores Organizations in Maputo, Mazambique
By Charlotte Allen and Elísio Jossias (with contributions from Sonia Dias), WIEGO Organizing Series, 2011

This report seeks to understand the situation of catadores in Maputo, Mozambique, whether and how they are organized and what possibilities exist for future organizing of catadores. It provides background information on the political and socio-economic context, relevant legislation and policy, and current approaches to waste management and recycling in Maputo. It also provides an overview of catadores organizations and organizations who provide support to catadores in Maputo, Mozambique. It concludes with some tentative proposals regarding how organizing of catadores can be supported in the future.

Download the Pdf Catadores Organizations in Maputo, Mozambique (pdf 2.1 Mb)

Organizing Reclaimers in Tshwane, South Africa Lessons from Top Down and Bottom Up Experiences
By Melanie Samson, WIEGO Organizing Series, 2010

People have been reclaiming reusable and recyclable materials from garbage dumps in Tshwane, South Africa area for at least thirty years. In the past, the thirteen apartheid era racially segregated councils that now comprise the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Council were generally hostile to the reclaimers – councils either forced reclaimers to work for exploitative contractors, barred them from the landfills or used the police to evict them when they entered the sites. However, ongoing confrontations made the Council realize it could not succeed in locking the reclaimers out, so it developed several projects to support their work. Although these projects failed, they helped lay the foundation from which reclaimers began to independently organize. In 2009, the reclaimers formed a network of reclaimers working on all Tshwane municipal dumps. As a result, Tshwane became unique within South Africa in that a relatively open Council and reclaimers have both organized initiatives seeking to improve the reclaimers' situation. This report explores these initiatives in order to distil lessons on how to support organizing by reclaimers and to transform their position in the waste management system and recycling economy.

Download the publication: Organizing Reclaimers in Tshwane (pdf 1.5 MB)
Download the summary report for this publication: Organizing Reclaimers in Tshwane Summary (pdf 459 KB)

Options for Organizing Waste Pickers in South Africa
By Jan Theron (2010)

Waste pickers (who are also known as reclaimers in South Africa) are workers engaged in collecting recyclable materials gathered from refuse, landfill sites and elsewhere, which they sell for a living. Although there are some waste pickers who work for someone else, most waste pickers have created their own jobs, and work for themselves: in other words they are self-employed. Across the country waste pickers are starting to organize as they recognize that this will help them to win recognition for the work that they do and to advance their collective interests. This booklet aims to assist them in this process by explaining the different kinds of collective organizations that they can form and identifying some of the key issues that they should consider when forming organizations.

Download the pdf: Options for Organizing Waste Pickers in South Africa (pdf 2.55 MB)

Producing Privatization: Re-articulating Race, Gender, Class and Space
By Melanie Samson (2010)

This article by Melanie Samson interrogates the racialized and gendered production of waste privatization in Johannesburg. Samson’s main concern is to see how different ways of theorizing privatization and understanding how privatization is produced in specific contexts opens up the possibility of seeing and engaging in new forms of struggle.

Download the pdf: Producing Privatization (pdf 589 KB)

Mapping of Waste Pickers and Organizations Supporting Waste Pickers in Kenya.
By David Kuria and Rina Muasya (2010)

This publication uses the findings of research and interviews to map the current status of waste pickers and supporting organizations in Kenya. The report includes an overview of policies related to waste picking in Kenya that explain the legislative framework of waste and the Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa Municipal Council by-laws. The report also provides a summary of findings from each municipality, namely Kisumu, Mombasa, Nairobi and Nakuru and an overview of the current status of organizing activity.

Download the pdf: Mapping of Waste Pickers and Organizations Supporting Waste Pickers in Kenya (pdf 442 KB)

Policy and Legislative Review: Context for Reclaiming Waste in Kenya.
By David Kuria and Dr Caleb Mireri (2010)

Waste picking provides an important source of livelihood for thousands of people in Kenya and it makes an significant contribution to the waste management chain. Despite the vital role played by waste pickers, their integration into the waste management system remains a serious challenge. The report provides an analysis of the key legislation governing waste management, as well as a synopsis of the policy and legislative framework on waste management. This report also makes recommendations aimed at improving the participation of waste pickers in waste management.

Download the pdf: Policy and Legislative Review (pdf 418 KB)

Reclaiming Reusable and Recyclable Materials in Africa - A Critical Review of English Language Literature, Research.
By Melanie Samson (2010)

Download the pdf: Reclaiming Reusable and Recyclable Materials in Africa (pdf 430 KB)

Belo Horizonte Selective Waste Collection Programme – Social Inclusion Features
By Sônia M. Dias, WIEGO Waste Sector Specialist

This case study outlines how the municipality of Belo Horizonte works in partnership with organizations of waste pickers in its system of solid waste management. In Belo Horizonte, prevention, reuse and recycling form the basis for recovering nearly 150 000 tons of waste annually through a mixture of innovative approaches and activities. More importantly these approaches and activities have led to the development and consolidation of a well organized informal sector.

Download the pdf: Belo Horizonte Selective Waste Collection Programme – Social Inclusion Features
(pdf 409 KB)

Trajectories and Memories – Waste & Citizenship Forums:
Unique Experiments of Social Justice and Participatory Governance.
By SoniaDias, (2009)
English summary of the original study available in Portuguese.

This research reviews Brazil’s Waste & Citizenship Forums (a multi-stakeholder forum) with the main objective of understanding whether their existence is really making a difference on the improvement of standards in solid waste management (SWM) – in its environmental and social aspects. In doing so it seeks to deepen the understanding of the rules that structure participation at the forums; assess the progress towards eradication of open dumps and social inclusion and assess what role the forums hbrave played in it (if any); to assess potential and constraints in the forum’s ability to influence public policies regarding solid waste and to assess how inclusive the Forums are in terms of social inclusion of non-organized waste pickers and other informal sector workers within SWM.

Download the pdf: Trajectories and Memories (pdf 133 KB)

Livelihoods with Dignity
By the Alliance of Indian Wastepickers, March 2010

This document has been compiled by Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) with reports from all members of the Alliance of Indian Wastepickers (AIW). Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) is a Trade Union of wastepickers registered in the year 1993, and functions as the secretariat for the AIW.

The Alliance of Indian Wastepickers (AIW) is a national network of 35 organizations working with, and comprised of, informal recyclers, wastepickers and/or itinerant buyers. The AIW has a presence in 22 cities across India and focuses on peer support, policy advocacy, and cross-learning. The Alliance of Indian Wastepickers will have its first National Conference on March 25th, 2010 in Delhi.

On March 10th, 2010, India's waste pickers, waste managers and recyclers rallied in large numbers in Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Ahmednaga, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Ghaziabad, Indore, Ahmedabad, Latur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Nashik, Tirupati, Ujjain and Goa.

Download the pdf: Livelihoods with Dignity (pdf 4.9 MB)

To access more research and publications, please visit the resources page