Waste Pickers | Inclusive Cities

Announcements

Wasteland, the critically acclaimed film by Lucy Walker, follows Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and a group of catadores (waste pickers) as they transform waste from the world's largest landfill site into mesmerizing works of art. Watch the trailer.

Now available - Options for Organizing Waste Pickers in South Africa Read more...

Rally in Solidarity with the Waste Pickers of Bogota... read more

Waste Pickers

Waste pickers form a small, but vital, part of the informal economy. In nearly every city of the developing world, thousands of men, women, and children make a living collecting, sorting, recycling, and selling the valuable materials thrown away by others. They collect household waste from the curb side, commercial and industrial waste from dumpsters, and litter from the streets, canals and other urban waterways. Others live and work in municipal dumps – as many as 20,000 people in Calcutta, 12,000 in Manila, and 15,000 in Mexico City.

In spite of working in an activity that recovers and recycles thousands of tons of raw material each year, this population is economically and socially falling further behind and becoming highly vulnerable. As a result, waste pickers have begun to organize and fight for their right to work in decent conditions that are within the framework of a public waste collection system.

Learn how informal waste pickers perform an essential role in the economies and societies of developing countries.

Download the pdf: Waste Collectors (pdf 128 KB)

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

Trajectories and Memories – Waste & Citizenship Forums: Unique Experiments of Social Justice and Participatory Governance. Dias, Sonia (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 have 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 5 MB)

Reclaiming Livelihoods: The role of reclaimers in municipal waste management systems. Melanie Samson, South Africa 2009.

This report focuses on the contributions of reclaimers (waste pickers) to social and environmental sustainability. It explores the work that reclaimers do, how they use salvaging of commodities from the waste stream as a way to support themselves, and how they are being affected by municipal waste management policies.

Download the pdf: Reclaiming Livelihoods (pdf 1.1 MB)

Report of Conference Proceedings: Waste Pickers without Frontiers.