Waste pickers and the law: Contradictory and fragmented regulation in three metropolitan municipalities

ABSTRACT

This contribution explores the contemporary regulatory framework pertaining to waste pickers. It does so by analysing certain municipal bylaws in three metropolitan municipalities, namely the City of Johannesburg; Ekurhuleni and the City of Cape-Town, that impact upon these vulnerable workers. It additionally considers the protection offered to waste pickers by the Department of Water Affairs Minimum Requirements for Waste Disposal by Landfill and analyses the extent to which these minimum requirements create legally enforceable rights for waste pickers within the three metropolitan municipalities. It concludes with a range of policy suggestions for the extension of protection to a greater number of waste pickers.

KEYWORDS:

• Waste pickers
• landfills
• regulation
• occupational health and safety

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments. Any errors remain the sole responsibility of the authors. This contribution is partially based on the first authors master’s dissertation titled ‘Extending labour law and social protection to waste pickers in the Fourth Industrial Age’.

Disclosure statement

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