Waste Pickers, How to Partner With Them?

Working with Waste Pickers Guide

This guide is meant for GAIA member organisations working on zero waste projects, and want to want to partner with waste pickers.

This guide should serve as a tool to inform your plans to partner with waste pickers; it should not replace the necessary research and relationship-building required to understand the local context of waste pickers in your community/city.

What is Waste Picker Organizing

Waste pickers around the world face similarities in the challenges they encounter. This includes the common need for official recognition from national and municipal governments, safe and healthy working conditions, Personal Protection Equipment, improved payment for their recovered materials/ collection/ processing services, and an end to social stigmatisation. The experiences of waste picker organisations from Latin America, Asia and South Africa show that these needs are achievable by building representative organisations to ensure their voices are heard in negotiations with governments and society.

Organised waste picker groups require waste pickers to work collaboratively and embed the principles of democracy, equality and environmental justice in their organised structures.

Gift Mongwe chatting to a glass recycler at Soshanguve landfill, South Africa. ©GAIA/Daylin Paul 2023

How Can Civil Society Support Waste Pickers?

Civil society organisations can be critical partners for waste pickers. Drawing from the experiences of organisations across Africa, some of the support given to waste pickers includes: assisting the process of individuals organising themselves, amplifying waste pickers’ demands for respect, recognition and inclusion, providing capacity-building for any needed skills, and helping to address the pressing and immediate needs of waste pickers, such as health care needs and personal protection equipment.

©GAIA 2022 Nairobi, Kenya International Waste Picker Gathering

Organisations do not speak for waste pickers or make decisions on how Democratic waste picker structures are run. Listen to this podcast episode on how civil society organisations can support the work of waste pickers. The episode features Maditlhare Koena (South African Waste Pickers Association) and Asiphile Khanyile (groundWork).

Definition of Waste Picker

Someone who collects reusable and recyclable materials from residential and commercial waste bins, landfill sites and open spaces in order to revalue them and generate an income.

Citation: Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and Department of Science and Innovation (2020).Waste picker integration guideline for South Africa: Building the Recycling Economy and Improving Livelihoods through Integration of the Informal Sector. DEFF and DST: Pretoria

Impact of Waste Pickers Work

Through their work, waste pickers create positive social, economic and environmental impacts in society.

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Common Needs of Waste Pickers

From consultation with GAIA member organisations, the following needs were identified as the main challenges waste pickers are facing across the African continent.

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Resources on Waste Picker Organizing

Benefits of Waste Picker Organizing Video Series

This four-part video series focuses on the benefits of waste pickers organising themselves into associations, and features Musa Chamane and Asiphile Khanyile of groundWork, Magdalena Donoso of GAIA Latin America and the Caribbean, Simon Mbata and Madi Koena of the South African Waste Pickers Association, Sonia Dias of WIEGO, Satyarupa Shekhar of Break Free From Plastic,

Veronica Hollela of Nipe Fagio and Desmond Alugnoa of GAIA Africa.

The topics for each episode include:

Watch the video

Case Study: Strengthening Waste Picker Organizing in Africa

This is a case study that shares the experiences of waste pickers from South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Morocco and Zambia on waste picker organising in their countries.

The EcoView Podcast on Strengthening Waste Picker Organizing in Africa

In this episode the late Simon Mbata of the South African Waste Pickers Organisation chatted to Dorothy Otieno from the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development and John Chweya from the Kenya National Waste Pickers Welfare Association about waste picker organising in Africa.

Listen to the podcast

United We Progress, Divided We Fall. Waste Pickers in South Africa

South African waste pickers began organising themselves in 2007.This was done with the help of groundWork (gW) and Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO), who started visiting different landfill sites across the country, motivating waste pickers working in these spaces to organise themselves. gW developed an organising booklet, showcasing the benefits of collectively organising to speak to the government to improve working conditions. Together, waste pickers began holding meetings, and they soon realised that their challenges were very similar which led to a national meeting in 2009. Waste pickers who attended the gathering committed to advocating for recognition and inclusion at a national level; they also agreed on the name South African Waste Pickers Association.

Case Study: Waste Picker Organizing in Kenya

The Centre for Environment Justice and Development (CEJAD), works with local waste pickers in Kenya. The organisation facilitates and trains individuals on the benefits of self-organising, workers’ rights, legal provisions, and opportunities associated with their line of work. With the support of CEJAD, waste pickers from Kisumu, Nairobi, Mombasa, and Nakuru have formed associations in Kenya. Learn more about the journey by watching the video.

Watch the video

Talking Points on Waste Pickers

A guide with key messaging on how we talk about waste pickers in relation to our key campaigns [Plastic, Anti-Incinteration, False solutions, Zero Waste, Climate, Waste Colonialism]. The aim of this guide is to give members a thought-starter on how to communicate on waste picker in relation to their campaigns.

Find the guide here

International Waste Picker Day 2023

International Waste Pickers Day is held annually on the 1st of March. This day commemorates the day that waste pickers were murdered in Colombia in 1992. Today waste pickers use this day to highlight their important contributions to the waste management sector. To join in the celebration of waste pickers, we held month-long activities during the month of march. See some of our activities below:

Get To Know Me Series! An Instagram reel series that aims to provide a platform for waste pickers to share their personal stories about who they are, why they do what they do and their values. Check them out here!

International Women’s Day For International Women’s Day We chatted with Lydia Bamfo, a waste picker leader from Ghana. Watch here!

Africa For Zero Waste Podcast. We started a podcast and later launched our first episode in March! In the episode, Maditlhare Koena (South African Waste Pickers Association) and Asiphile Khanyile (groundWork) talk to host Sureshnie Rieder about how civil society organisations can support the work of waste pickers. Listen to the conversation here!

A Day in the Life of A Waste Picker. Day in the life of a waste picker is a photo essay series that takes us through the daily lives of waste pickers in 4 different African communities. You can view these images in our 3d virtual gallery.

Online Meeting | Photo Essay Launch To launch the photo essay series, A Day in the Life of A Waste Picker, we held an online event to formally launch this exhibition. If you would like to watch the full recording, it can be accessed here. Passcode: $GDW8CBZ.

To learn more about working with waste pickers in Africa, please reach out to:

Niven Reddy, GAIA Africa Regional Coordinator, niven@no-burn.org

Desmond Alugnoa, GAIA Africa Campaigns Manager, desmond@no-burn.org