Download PDF of the September 2011 Africa newsletter.
India’s waste pickers – I saw a miracle
Mmapula Baloyi is not looking like a waste picker today. She is smartly dressed as she smilingly meets us inside the ‘stop nonsense wall’ that surrounds Temba, the site where she works. >> read the post
Same issues world over
The AIW (Indian Alliance of Waste Pickers) workshop on Landfill Workers Struggles and Strategies held in June this year in Mumbai with a view to understanding the situation of waste pickers working in landfills across the country and abroad. >> read the post
Learning from India
Aliou Faye is a 34 years old Senegalese waste picker who has worked in Mbeubeuss landfill in Dakar for the last 16 years. He is vice-president of the waste pickers’ organisation in his landfill, Bokk Diomm. >> read the post
Tshwane: power through networking
In the 1990s the Tshwane municipality in South Africa engaged in a number of failed projects with waste pickers. These included a project that hired waste pickers to make crafts out of recyclable material. It also included at a private company with interests in waste management helping waste pickers to set up cooperatives and run buy-back centres for the cooperatives. However the positive that came out of these failures was that waste pickers formed committees on dumps and this provided the base for independent organizing. >> read the post
Hands in trash, heads held high
In September last year at an important meeting of waste collectors in Dakar, Senegal StreetNet International encouraged its Africa affiliates to organize waste pickers. >> read the post
Waste pickers! COP17 is important
Here we go again, the yearly United Nations (UN) climate summit is approaching in Durban at the end of the year, with its usual endless list of strange words that make us scratch our heads in confusion. >> read the post
False solutions to climate change – CDM incineration and landfill gas systems
Waste has become an important item on the international agenda for climate change. >> read the post
Organising Tips 1 – Waste pickers
This column will be a regular feature for waste pickers and support organizations who are helping waste pickers to organize themselves. In each newsletter we will include some organizing tips. >> read the post
Preparing for COP17 – Waste pickers get active
7 – 8 September 2011 Johannesburg Waste and Climate Change Workshop
1 – 2 December 2011 Durban Waste pickers meeting during COP17
3 December 2011 COP Day of Action
Global Waste Picker events calendar
Coordination Meeting MNCR and LAWPN, Sao Paulo-Brasil, end August
Fund raising workshop for AIW, India, end August
Clinton Global Initiative- informal sector recycling meeting, New York-USA, mid September
Expocatadora, Sao Paulo-Brasil, early November
ILO workshop, India, November
Launch of Global Wastepickers website, mid November
COP 17, Durban SouthAfrica, late November
Photo by Melanie Samson
“ Initially we thought that only the Latin Americans were organising, but
now we are proud that internationally while it may be that our hands are
in the trash, but our head is held high.”
Delegate, waste pickers’ meeting Senegal, Dakar, September 2010
Useful contacts
Coordinator of WIEGO AFrica Waste Picker Programme – Melanie Samson email: melanie.samson@wiego.org
WIEGO website – www.wiego.org
Wiego address: 521 Royal Exchange, Manchester, M2 7EN, United Kingdom
Inclusive Cities website – www.inclusivecities.org
GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) website – http://www.no-burn.org/
Tweet