WIEGO is pleased to share with you the Informal Economy Monitoring Study Sector Report: Waste Pickers, written by Sonia Maria Dias, WIEGO's Waste Sector Specialist, and Melanie Samson, WIEGO's former Africa Waste Sector Specialist. The report presents evidence on the systemic drivers shaping working conditions for waste pickers in five cities -- Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Bogota, Colombia; Pune, India; Nakuru, Kenya; and Durban, South Africa -- and their responses to these drivers.
This is the final of three sector reports that have been published as part of the Informal Economy Monitoring Study. The first two focused on home-based workers and street vendors. We are grateful for the commitment of our partners, who coordinated the research in their respective cities: Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotá (ARB); Instituto Nenuca de Desenvolvimento Sustentável -- INSEA and the waste pickers' networks Redesol and Cataunidos in Belo Horizonte; Asiye eTafuleni in Durban; the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT) in Nakuru; and the waste pickers' union Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) in Pune.
The report identifies several key drivers in the waste-picking sector, including the following:
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Government laws and programmes related to waste, especially harassment and the lack of formal permission to work;
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Low and fluctuating prices of waste materials, which workers collect, recycle and sell for income;
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Health and safety issues and concerns over working conditions, particularly in the cities that lacked government-provided sorting infrastructure.
Many thanks to all of those who made the report possible, including, most of all, the waste pickers in these cities who opened up about their lives and livelihoods to the research team.
The Informal Economy Monitoring Study Sector Report: Waste Pickers and supporting materials can be found here.
With warm regards,
Sally Roever
WIEGO Urban Policies Director
Извор: WUNRN – 04.03.2016
