Waste pickers and Covid-19

Given the current critical public health concern originated with Covid-19, I contributed to the creation of specific initiatives to support waste pickers in other countries and diverters in our own community. Diverters and waste pickers are individuals who make a living from collecting bottles and cans, redirecting them from the waste stream into the circular economy. These individuals are particularly vulnerable during the current pandemic, because they might become exposed to contaminated recyclables. Some of these individuals are elderly, homeless and/or have existing health issues, which exposes them and makes them more susceptible to contracting the virus. 

Marcelo, a waste picker from Buenos Aires, Argentina has expressed his concerns: “Not only don’t we have access to hand sanitizer because it costs money, but we also don’t have access to soap and running water while working in the streets collecting recyclable materials and we can’t just stop working, otherwise we would not eat and would equally die.” 

Waste pickers often work in the streets or at dumps, where they don’t have access to running water, soap or sanitizer. Sometimes they even lack these at home. Most often they do not have masks or gloves to protect themselves during the work. Most waste pickers in the global South are very poor and their income source depends on collecting, separating and selling recyclables. The lack of formal or other income sources forces them to continue working, potentially exposing them to the virus and making social distancing difficult. Their income is now lower, due to overall changes in consumption, loss of clients due to closed business (offices, restaurants, stores, etc.) with whom they had established agreements to collect recyclable waste. All these factors bring waste pickers to the verge of misery. They don’t have savings, nor other income sources. Not all waste pickers will be compensated by the government or can be reached through solidarity campaigns. We foresee widespread increased poverty, which will also reflect in food insecurity with all its consequences. 

Knowledge mobilization for Covid-19 preventive actions

Our initiative emerged as member of the International Committee on Waste Workers Occupational Safety and Health (WHWB), together with scholars from the Department of Public Health at the University of Brasilia and from WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), as emergency action to support waste pickers around the globe. We designed information material in English and Portuguese to be disseminated in Brazil, Canada, Kenya, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Argentina. We have distributed the posters through our networks in Brazil and other countries, to reach the cooperative level. We are also developing research on the impact of Covid-19 on waste pickers and their resilience.

Beyond designing and disseminating educational information material we also engaged in discussions about the indirect effects of the pandemic of Covid-19 and the social and economic reactions, particularly related to the informal sector, studying the prospects and opportunities  for the SSE to build a more just society in pos-Covid times.