Thursday, Dec. 1, 10 a.m.
Howard College, Shepstone 4, University of KwaZulu-Natal Waste Pickers reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save raw materials through recycling. They are a real human force to mitigate climate change and offer a necessary alternative to polluting, waste-to-energy technologies. Representatives from the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers will talk about their realities and views on the climate and waste policy situation, including a critical perspective on the CDM and the Green Climate Fund.
Hoy al ser la una de tarde aqui en Durban, atuvimos en la reunion de la junta directiva del MDL, y varios de nosotros tuvimos intervención, desde ayer estuvimos trabajando mucho en como plantear nuestras preguntas ya que ellos argumentan cualquier cosa con tal de no dar una respuesta que los delate sobre lo que quieren seguir haciendo, para ellos solo sus proyectos tienen valides y…
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. But what lessons and openings for organisation emerged in this period?
A meeting in Dakar included delegates from countries across Africa such as Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, Rwanda, Congo, Togo, Burkina Faso and Chad. Participants discussed key problems such as child labour, waste pickers paying to collect waste instead of being paid, lack of knowledge of rights, lack of local government capacity to manage waste, and the privatization of waste collection.
