The forgotten essential workers in the circular economy? Waste picker precarity and resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Globally, more than 60% of all workers work in the informal economy (ILO 2020). One sector, waste pickers, comprise 1–2% of workers in low- and middle-income countries, yet their vulnerabilities and contributions to the circular economy are poorly understood. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a valuable opportunity to evaluate the socio-economic precarity of waste pickers, the essentiality of their contributions to sustainability efforts, and the fragility of circular economy infrastructures. This study, designed by WIEGO (Women in the Informal Economy: Globalizing and Organizing), aimed to assess the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns on waste pickers globally. Additionally, the study surveyed occupational health challenges faced by waste pickers and responses by local governments and non-governmental organizations. Between June and July 2020, local research teams surveyed 499 waste pickers in 9 cities in 8 countries. The study findings highlight 1) that the pandemic exacerbated the already precarious economic condition of waste pickers; 2) high worker risk to occupational exposures and lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), which resulted in varied PPE usage, and 3) the uneven and limited distribution of economic assistance and aid by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local governments in support of waste pickers as essential workers. We propose several recommendations to address persistent inequities in the informal recycling sector to create a more inclusive and just circular economy.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal economy
• waste pickers
• recyclers
• circular economy
• COVID-19 pandemic

Acknowledgements

We thank the generosity of study participants and the international research team members for leading local data collection. WIEGO staff, especially Jenna Harvey and Sarah Reed, assisted in data procurement, research training, and coordinating logistics. Erofili Grapsa provided statistical assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding Sources

The study was funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada (109486-001).

Declaration of Interest Statement

We declare no competing interests.

Notes

1 The study also looks at several other categories of informal workers in the same cities, including domestic workers, home-based workers, and street vendors, among others.

2 For the purposes of the study, “informal employment” was defined as: employment without benefits such as paid annual and sick leave [provided] through work.

3 The fact that, in Dakar, the municipal open-air dump was deemed essential during the pandemic tacitly permitted waste pickers, who live in or adjacent to the dump, to continue working. Waste pickers were not officially recognized or granted special privileges. In Mexico City, “basic sanitation” services were deemed “essential,” which implicitly permitted waste pickers to continue working alongside municipal sanitation workers though they are not officially recognized by the government. (See section 4.5 for a more detailed discussion of the Mexico City case study.)