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BOGOTA, Mar 5 (OneWorld) - People who earn their living by sorting through and reselling municipal waste have reasserted their role as garbage recyclers and productive members of the global economy at an unprecedented event here this week.

© Henry ManceThe First World Congress of Waste Pickers, which closed Tuesday after four days of discussions among delegates from over 40 countries, included proposals about how waste pickers can form strong associations and even access funds through carbon credits.

"We've gotten to know each other as waste pickers from across the world and we've begun an unbreakable relationship," said Silvio Ruiz from the organizing body, the Bogota Association of Recyclers.

Waste pickers earn a living from collecting, sorting, and reselling recyclable materials, such as paper and plastics, which they mainly find on the street or at landfill sites.

Although there is no official estimate of the number of waste pickers worldwide, delegates from Colombia, Turkey, and China estimated that their national totals are around 300,000; 200,000; and 6 million respectively.

"It's impressive," said Pat Horn, an observer from the nonprofit group StreetNet. "These are grassroots organizations, but they also have the scale to negotiate. There aren't many examples of good cooperative movements like this."

Organizing Waste Pickers

Like other informal workers, waste pickers are often excluded from labor protections and social welfare programs. "What's different [about waste pickers] is that their main negotiating partner is usually the municipality," said Horn. "They are dependent on public spaces, and they are more affected by urban policies."

© Henry ManceThis vulnerability to urban policy creates a need for waste pickers to dialogue with local authorities, who often consider them to be thieves of the rubbish they collect. As a result, strong waste-picker cooperatives have emerged. In Colombia, Mar. 1 is designated the Day of the Waste Picker to commemorate the murder of waste pickers 15 years ago in a body-snatching scandal.

In Brazil, a delegation of waste pickers meets annually with the country's president to discuss public policies that impact their colleagues.

Waste pickers in Africa and Asia have struggled to match the levels of organization seen in Latin America, but delegates hope the Congress will help change this. For Patrick Mwanzia, a representative from Kenya, there are two key obstacles: "Firstly, waste pickers in Kenya lack exposure to experiences elsewhere. And secondly they need facilitation: at the moment, they have no power to communicate, and to have someone to bring them together is rare. So my first role when I go back is to work [to create] a local network of waste pickers." In Turkey, where waste pickers have faced hostile government policies including the destruction of their warehouses, many remain unconvinced of the benefits of organizing. According to Eloise Dhuy of the fledgling Ankara Recycling Association: "At the moment the Association isn't doing much [that is] visible, so people ask what the point is. We came to the Congress so we can now show the waste pickers examples of what's possible." "Hearing these experiences gives us a motive to keep struggling," says Ruiz from Bogota, whose involvement in the organization of waste pickers began when he co-founded a cooperative at the age of 14. "It is just a matter of time. In Latin America, we've been organizing ourselves for decades; in Africa and elsewhere, they're just beginning the process."

Environmental Benefits

A priority of the waste pickers at the Congress has been to ensure that they are rewarded for the environmental benefits of their work. "We are sifting through the rubbish and saving the authorities money, but we are being labeled as dirty," says Laxmi Narayan from the Puna Recyclers Union in India.

© Francisco RobayoMany delegates expressed enthusiasm for the possibility of applying for carbon credits. Under the Clean Development Mechanism, which is part of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, rich countries can partially meet their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by financing emission-reducing projects in poor countries.

Waste pickers reduce the amount of garbage going to landfill sites, and could do so further by composting organic waste, but it's unclear whether projects to increase the scope of their work would be eligible to receive funding under the carbon-credit program. Another profitable option, already successfully tried in Latin America, is for waste pickers to add value to their work by transforming what they find into materials that can be sold for a higher price. In addition, waste pickers are seeking to ensure they are included when local authorities begin official recycling programs. Delegates from across Latin America approved a declaration at the end of the Congress that included a call for waste pickers -- and not private companies -- to be awarded government contracts for doorstep collection of recyclable waste. But according to Narayan of the Puna Recyclers Union in India: "Just rejecting the privatization of waste collection hasn't worked. So we're looking to see if we can build alternative models with the municipalities." Some analysts, however, are cautioning waste-picker cooperatives to be clear about the roles they can and should play in improving their members' living standards.

"People here are thinking like small businessmen instead of like organizers," said Wade Rathke, chief organizer of the U.S. nonprofit, labor-rights group ACORN. "Getting skilled waste pickers doesn't change the fact that there will always be a large unskilled base. People aren't thinking about how to raise all boats." Organizers hope that such comments will provide food for thought at national and regional meetings due to be held before a Second World Congress of Waste Pickers, which has been suggested for 2010.

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