ACT: Recognize Wastepickers as Partners in Public Waste Management Systems

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to invite concerned groups and individuals across the globe to support a petition by the Alliance of Wastepickers Maharashtra urging Shri Ashok Shankarrao Chavan (Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra) to acknowledge the role of wastepickers, who are productive members of the Indian economy, as partners in the public waste management systems.   The petition further urges the authorities to disallow “waste-to-energy” projects that incinerate municipal discards as feedstock, undermining materials recovery and recycling.

The AIW, comprised of  34 groups representing some 100,000 wastepickers from various regions of India, seek global solidarity as they strive to promote decent livelihoods for the informal recyclers. Wastepickers, “the poorest workers in the urban informal economy” are known to suffer from police harassment and brutality, unfair practices by scrap traders and money-lenders, and from social stigma associated with wastepicking.  In the absence of binding legal contracts with the municipalities or the recycling industries, these unacknowledged laborers are prone to exploitative treatment, exposed to occupational and health hazards, deprived of social security and labor protection, and dispossessed of their political voice.

While they are owed climate debt for their contributions in cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and garbage disposal costs through the recovery and recycling of resource materials, wastepickers in India and elsewhere are still unrecognized for their role in climate mitigation.  In fact, “waste-to-energy” projects funded out of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) even negate their access torecyclables.  To give you an idea about the climate benefits of wastepicking, please see the estimates below about GHG reductions and waste management savings in Delhi and Pune (please note that 1 lakh is equal to 100,000 and 1 crore is equal to 10 million or 100 lakh).

In this regard, we strongly urge you to sign on to the AIW petition, which will be forwarded to the concerned authorities in India this March. 

SIGN PETITION now!

The deadline for this petition is 1 April 2010.

For more information about this petition or the Alliance of Wastepickers Maharashtra, kindly contact Nalini Shekar at nalinipalyam(at)gmail.com.

We thank you very much for your solidarity and for your help in recognizing and defending wastepickers’ contributions to the economy and the environment.

Sincerely yours,
Lakshmi Narayan

Climate Benefits of Wastepicking

“In Pune, informal waste workers recover recyclable materials amounting to 22% of municipal solid waste saving the city 12 crores per annum in waste handling costs alone. The sector saves estimated Greenhouse Gas Emissions amounting to 294316 in Metric Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (mtCO2-eq) per annum.”

“In Delhi, informal waste workers save an estimated 900,000 tons of CO2equivalent, which is over 3 times higher than any solid waste CDM Project in the country. We also pick up as much as 59% of the waste in certain pockets, saving the city over Rs. 12 lakhs in labour cost alone.”