GLOBAL ALLIANCE OF
WASTE PICKERS
WASTE PICKERS
The Global Alliance of Waste Pickers is a networking process supported by WIEGO, among thousands of waste picker organizations with groups in more than 28 countries covering mainly Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Supported by
Life & Voices
Get to know waste picker leaders who have actively participated in the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers process.
Where are we?
Provisional list of hundreds of waste pickers’ groups around the globe.
Recent newsletter
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News from Waste Pickers around the world
Organizing
Issue Series 1 Extended Producers Responsibility and Inclusion: Brazil’s Extended Producer Responsibility and its Interface with Waste Pickers
The recycling industry since its early beginning had always relied on the work carried out by informal recycling workers in Brazil, the “catadores de materiais recicláveis” (p...
When the Minister read postcards written by waste pickers’ children
Waste pickers and other informal sector waste workers make a living collecting, sorting, recycling, and selling materials that others throw away. They contribute to local economies...
Seven Reasons Why Decentralized Waste Management is Best for Emerging Economies
The global waste crisis is rapidly growing. With waste generation estimated to increase to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050, the effectiveness of systems that manage this waste has becom...
Reflections on EPR-based Systems Targeting Multi-Layered Plastics
Lubna Anantakrishnan The impending roll-out of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Framework seems, at face value, to be a positive step towards tackling the global plastic ...
Waste pickers and workers in the informal waste industry: The Pillars of Extended Producers Responsibility
Nalini Shekar and Kabir Arora A decade ago, the term ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) was either found in the textbooks of Environment Sciences or in the forgotten ...
Threats
Mbeubeuss: Declaration of the Waste Pickers Association on the occasion of May 1st
Workers in Senegal and around the world are celebrating Labor Day this year in a particular context marked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Bokk Diom Association wishes to expresse...
YoSoyLiliana: Condemnation of violence against a waste picker in Colombia
While Liliana Ospina Corrales, a waste picker by trade from the Planeta Verde Cooperative, was making her route to provide waste recovery public services, the neighbours and the co...
Waste pickers from São Caetano do Sul abandoned amid the crisis
On June 8, 2020, amid the worst sanitary, economic and humanitarian crisis of the new millennium, the autarchy responsible for waste management in the municipality of São Caetano ...
Waste pickers in Chile and Madrid stand up for the Earth
Following its cancellation in Chile, the COP25 was held at its new location in Madrid, and both waste pickers and members of the WIEGO Network joined the activists at events simult...
Let waste pickers work in Porto Alegre
Immediate repeal of the Melo Law. Right in the middle of the pandemic, the Melo Law, named after the former councillor and current candidate to mayor of Porto Alegre, known as the ...
Publications
Video on global threats to waste pickers’ work
This video detects all the threats to the work of latent waste pickers around the world today. The threats are a constant in their work, but the video assumes that because the threats are global, the resistance and struggle against them must be equally global and in solidarity within the working class
International Live streaming: Waste Pickers Organization in the World
The National movement of Brazilian Waste Pickers (MNCR), together with the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers, will bring together waste pickers from around the world to discuss stra...
Waste Workers’ Safety during the COVID-19 pandemic (webinar)
The video of the webinar is available in YouTube. On Thursday April 30th, 2020, at 15:00h CEST the webinar Waste Workers’ safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, organized by UN...
Indonesian Waste-pickers in a Dire Situation due to the COVID-19 Lock-down
World over the countries have enforced lockdown to reduce the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. This has created a lot of problems for the waste-pickers and other informal waste collect...
Watch the feature film “Waste Picking Stories”
The feature film “Waste Picking Stories” (Catadores de História) directed by filmmaker Tania Quaresma was released on online platforms on December 13, 2018. It receive...
