For the past 22 years, the waste pickers of Colombia have been fighting for recognition of their work. “There are no borders for those who fight,” is the slogan that symbolizes the struggle of the more than 15 million waste pickers, who are facing global threats – against their lives, organization and towards the environment.
Don’t Waste People captures the voices of a few of the hundreds of thousands of people who work as waste pickers in Delhi, India, sorting through trash from roadsides, municipal bins and landfills and selling the reusable material to make a living.
In the month of June, many residents of the Bañado Tacumbú neighborhood of Asunción, Paraguay, had to evacuate their homes because of flooding. The flood has affected about 5,000 families, 80 percent of which are waste picker families
SAWPA has been in negotiations with government at all levels about their recognition, particularly receiving recognition in some municipal areas that has since resulted in new projects on the ground. There are various projects in which SAWPA members are involved.
This petition urges the Pune (India) municipal government to 1. revoke the existing schemes offering cash rewards to meritorious students from privileged classes, and change the eligibility criteria to benefit marginalized children and 2. pay the welfare benefits due towards education of waste-pickers’ children for the period 2008-2013, and to pass a comprehensive welfare benefit scheme for them for the future.
The South African Waste Pickers’ Association (SAWPA) are in the process of registering with REDISA as tyre collectors and/or transporters. Waste pickers are already in the business of recycling and this plan is just adding one more waste stream to collect.
Instead of supporting the local social economy, Msunduzi Municipality has signed an agreement with Wildlands Conservation Trust to take all recyclable waste from Pietermaritzburg.
The Movement of Brazilian Waste Pickers (MNCR) showed once more the result of a national effort in the struggle for recognition with the official partipation of waste pickers in recycling service during the World Cup. Close to 840 waste pickers organized in cooperatives and networks were part of the recycling effort across 12 World Cup stadiums, as well as at official World Cup events.
Recently there was an article/video asking for a ban on waste picking and attacking the organization that is working to organize this section of eco warriors (they retrieve valuables like nobody can), they say waste picking should NOT be formalized. Listen to this lady whose livelihood depends on the waste the city throws.
As a response to information recently published about the current government-led public bidding process that aims to promote waste-to-energy in Uruguay, a pro-waste picker initiative called the Coordinadora Pro Clasificadores (CPC) declares in four points that the generation of energy from waste is not a solution.
I am writing this email on behalf of All India Kabadi Mazdoor Mahasangh(AIKMM). There has been a massive fire in Masoodpur in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi around 7:30 am on 25 April 2014, where waste recyclers live. Approximately 1000 huts (Jhuggi) were razed to the ground.
In a video produced by ARB and supported by WIEGO, Silvio Ruiz Grisales, a Colombian recycler, spoke about the continued fight for the right to waste management in Bogotá.
Ladies and gentlemen the elected municipal officials, you must stop suppressing waste picking and trading, talking about doing so or obsessing over it! Rather, create new market areas as biffins, everywhere, are waiting and expecting a policy worthy of the name, which recognizes the value of the junk trade and provides the space it deserves. Let us speed up the junk business! All to the junk market!
For women waste pickers, March 8 is a day of struggle – a struggle for inclusive recycling and for the end of inequality in recycling.
Little research exists about gender relations and divisions among waste pickers. A collaborative project involving waste pickers in Latin America seeks to shed light on the multiple levels of discrimination that women waste pickers face and their needs.
Organized waste pickers are the subject of an agreement in Ecuador between the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion, the Ministry of the Environment, the Institute of Popular Economy and the National Network of Waste Pickers of Ecuador (Renarec), with the support of the Avina Foundation
On February 12, activists and citizens were present at the City Hall of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to alert representatives of the risks of approving two pieces of legislation that would permit incineration technology in the city.
