Waste Pickers

Organizing on the Streets: A Study of Reclaimers in the Streets of Cape Town

 This brief is part of the WIEGO Publication Series. View list of all WIEGO briefs.

Coping with Crises: Lingering Recession, Rising Inflation, and the Informal Workforce

This report proposes a a number of policies to help address the existing vulnerabilities of workers in the informal economy and minimize...

Assessment of a SWM System: Social Impacts on Former Waste Pickers. Case Study: San Carlos City, Philippines

Summary: Solid waste represents a major problem in developing countries due to the lack of regulations and inappropriate management among...

Executive Summary – Informal Economy Monitoring Study: Waste Pickers in Bogotá, Colombia

Urban informality and building a more inclusive, resilient and green economy

The green economy and climate resilience agendas are widely promoted as solutions to 21st century challenges facing sustainable development....

Cooling Agents: An Examination of the role of the Informal Recycling Sector in Mitigating Climate Change

Intuition and common sense suggest that recycling waste mitigates greenhouse gases. Now, data from all over the developed world shows this...

Public Space, Public Waste, and the Right to the City

Abstract: I draw on my experiences as an organizer with a waste-pickers collective, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat in Pune, India,...

Amplifying voice, visibility and validity. Waste pickers in Jo’burg citySouth African Labour Bulletin

The November/December 2017 edition of the South African Labour Bulletin features the article, “Amplifying voice, visibility and validity....

Wasted Citizenship: Reclaimers and the Privatised Expansion of the Public Sphere

Dakar, Senegal: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.

Rescaling the State, Restructuring Social Relations