Waste pickers’ cooperatives: social and environmental impacts in the recycling value chain in Cordoba, Argentina

ABSTRACT

In Argentina, waste pickers play an important role in the recovery of recyclable Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Most of them organise themselves in cooperatives to gain more visibility and overcome their situation of vulnerability. Their activity involves numerous social and environmental impacts that should be considered when assessing the recycling value chain’s performance. With this aim and resorting to the concept of upgrading, this article analyses the impact of waste pickers’ cooperatives in Cordoba and the opportunities for a better social and environmental performance of the chain. We found that waste pickers’ cooperatives have positive and negative social and environmental impacts. Our work makes an empirical contribution to the literature on waste pickers from a Global South perspective, highlighting the need for a more integrative and inclusive framework for MSW management oriented towards the circular economy which formally integrates waste pickers as key actors in urban hygiene.

KEYWORDS:

• Circular economy; gender; inclusion; informal economy; upgrading

Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 5: Gender equality; SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth; SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities, SDG 10: Reduced inequalities, SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for partial support from the following sources: Municipality of Cordoba (Technical assistance: “Circular economy. Value chain mapping of recyclable materials in the city of Cordoba”); Science and Technology Office of the National University of Cordoba (Research project 2018–2022: “Conflicts of interest and institutional context as determinants of sustainable upgrading in Argentinean global value chains”); and Extension Office of the National University of Cordoba (Scholarship: “Recycling ants: Redefining the role of waste pickers”). We would like to thank our colleague, María Florencia Peretti, for her valuable contributions in the development of the field work and collaboration in the three projects mentioned above, and the students of the Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Law of the National University of Cordoba who helped in the field work.

Notes

1 This movement is a national social organisation that brings together workers in the popular economy and seeks to improve their living conditions by founding cooperatives and productive units to organise work collectively.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National University of Cordoba and Municipality of Cordoba.