Welcome! In many cities of the developing countries, the informal sector plays a crucial role in managing municipal solid waste. In this module, we should look at that more into depth on this role, and also, see how a city can make use of this opportunity to integrate the informal sector into the municipal waste management sector. I was helped a lot in this module by Dr Sunjai Gupta. Informal sector waste workers are defined as individuals, or small enterprises, that intervene in waste management. They are not formally registered, and are not formally mandated with providing waste management services. Their predominant activity is in recycling materials from the waste stream. In the recovery recycables, they are active throughout the waste management chain. Starting at the household as well as scavenging through garbage bins, collection points, or disposal sites. They extract, process and sell those materials that have a high intrinsic value, on which they can make some profit. But sometimes, they also provide collection services. The informal recycling sector is structured like a pyramid. At the bottom of the waste trade pyramid are the waste pickers who engage in the free collection of waste from municipal garbage bins, streets, and disposal site. They're often subject to high occupational risk, but also socially stigmatized. Above them are the scrap buyers, who purchase or collect small quantities of recyclable waste materials from households. Or small shops that buy materials from waste pickers. A new trend for instance are waste banks, where residents can bring their recyclables for a price or a voucher. Above this level are then different levels of traders, including retailers, stockists and wholesalers. Many of whom are also informal and not registered as businesses. The materials recovered by this informal valorization sector are sold into the larger industrial value chain. A smaller amount may be processed directly by smaller businesses or cottage industry, to new products. The trade gets more specialized as it moves up the pyramid. At every successive level, waste is sorted more specifically, and further processed, here by adding more value. Here are some examples of these different types of informal waste workers, starting with the waste pickers. Scavenging materials at the roadside, or from the trucks delivering to the disposal site. It becomes obvious from these pictures that this is a quite a high risk and hazardous activity. On the other hand, they are also the collectors of recyclables at the household, often they are equipped with their own vehicle. Such is this example from Thailand that collects recyclables at household level. And finally, the junk shop, a trading station for these recyclers, but also the location where recyclables are sorted further, stored, and then sold to the next level of trader in larger bulk amounts. What is actually quite typical, besides the collection of recycled at the household level, are also formal employees of the waste collection service, that informally practice the recovery of recycled materials during their collection duties. As shown here, where you can see the baskets attached to the trucks, where materials are collected. The collectors remove items of value, from the mixed waste stream, and store them in these baskets. A study by the collaborative working group on solid waste management, in collaboration with the German Society for International Corporation GIZ, conducted a detailed study, in different cities worldwide, to assess the importance and contribution of the informal sector. Here is a graph, on the average cost savings for each municipality, showing 6 major cities. You can see that depending on the city, the cost savings for the municipality range between 1 and 16 million euro per year. Major savings relate to the effect of recycling before collection. The savings by recycling at the landfill are mostly related to space saving, and extending the life span of the landfill. Then there are also other cost savings, which are a bit more difficult to monitorize, such as the savings due to substitution of raw materials. Estimates of these savings in externalities are shown here for 3 cities ranging from 2,4 million in Quezon city Philippines, up to 7,2 million for Lima, Peru. And lastly, it's important to state that outsourcing to waste pickers cooperatives, wherever they exist, is often cheaper than involving formal private public partnerships, or private sector involvement. Study from Mumbai showed that the informal sector is 20% cheaper than the municipal services, while the private sector is only 6% cheaper. Besides the cost savings for the municipality, of course, the informal sector is an important source of livelihood for millions of people. It is estimated that worldwide, nearly 15 million people work in the informal waste management sector. This graph shows the number of informal waste workers, as compared to those employed in the formal sector for some selected cities. Of course, variations can be quite large depending on the city, and on the context. But just look at Cairo, as an example, where 33000 people are working in the informal sector, as compared to 8800 in the formal sector. This is a factor of 3,7. This informal sector recovers significant amounts of the waste stream. Earnings of this informal sector can vary significantly, depending on the type of activity, the people engaged in. Typically though, waste picking is the lowest paid part of the recycling chain. But even here, like in this example from Brazil, a study showed that 1/3 of the waste pickers earn the minimum wage, or slightly above, while more than half earn up to 4 times the minimum wage. Attitudes of municipal authorities towards the informal sector differ from place to place. In some places there is hostility, in others indifference, and in some places, they are regarded as a useful part of the waste management system, and are given the opportunity to enhance their livelihoods. The role of the municipality is critical, to mobilizing the informal sector, and organizing the recycling sector. The first way to upgrade the informal sector would be to integrate them into the city's masterplan. But also integrate them into collecting waste at source, with the right over recyclables, and a guarantee of regular access to waste. In a recent development, waste picker cooperatives had been formed by the informal sector, workers, in many countries, with the help of non-governmental organization, municipalities, and donor agencies. These workers undertake some formal work under contract to municipal authorities, while also being involved in informal recycling. Thus in this respect making their roles semi-formal. Now let's look at some examples how the informal sector was integrated. Brazil is one of the world's most progressive countries in integrating waste pickers in solid waste management system. And Belo Horizonte has led the way in this effort. Already back in 1993, the city put a focus on promoting segregation at the source, and started integrating the informal sector, by helping to develop cooperatives, and guide them throughout, towards material recovery close to the household, instead of waste scavenging at the landfill. In Belo Horizonte, there are an estimated 2700 informal waste workers in the city. With the assistance of the municipality, 8 different cooperatives were created. For these cooperatives, warehouses are provided by the municipality. Here, the materials are processed, before moving up the recycling chain. All cooperatives were provided with scales, personal protection equipment, and big bags for storage. Since 2001 Brazil has even included "catador de material reciclado". Sorry for that terrible Portuguese pronunciation, which stands for collector of recyclables, as a formal profession in the Brazilian occupation classification. Another example of a successful integration of the informal sector is the SWACH cooperative in Pune, India. SWACH is a wholly owned cooporative of waste pickers. It started off as a 2 year pilot project from 2005 to 2007 that carefully tested and established the workability of this model. Then, in 2008 SWACH then entered into a memorandum of understanding, with the Pune municipal corporation, to collect waste, door to door, and this was an important milestone for the waste pickers. The scope of SWACH includes collection, resource recovery, trade and waste processing. And it is conceived as an autonomous social enterprise. It is in close contact with the clients and residents by providing this service, and it also operates a helpline for feedback and complaints. Currently, through its 1867 members, with 80% of the members being women, it provides service to the 1,5 million people of Pune. The cooperative is overseen by a governing board that has 14 waste picker members on the board, 2 representatives of the Pune municipal corporation, and 2 members of the trade union of waste pickers. Data has shown that waste reaching the landfill has been reduced by more than 55%, or 320 tons per day. So let me summarize what we have covered in this module. We have looked at the significant role of the informal sector recovering up to 30% of the waste stream. We also looked at the cost savings for the municipality, up to 16 million euro per year for the example of Lima, Peru. Waste recycling provides up to 2% source of livelihood for the urban poor. And recycling happens all along the waste chain. One can estimate one job for each ton recovered. What's also important is that work conditions and income improve when recycling is closer to the source of waste generation or formalized, for instance, through cooperatives. Thank you for listening.
