Waste Pickers at the Heart of the Circular Economy: A Perspective of Inclusive Recycling from the Global South

Abstract

Introduction This article focuses on waste picker cooperatives and their contribution to circular economy. Worldwide waste pickers reclaim a wide array of different materials from household waste; ranging from paper and cardboard, plastics, metals, glass, and wood to sometimes more specific materials such as cooking oil, fluorescent lamps, batteries, and electric or electronic waste (Wilson et al. 2006). The amounts recovered are significant, although quantified data is not always available for all types of materials and for every city. There are no formal selective waste collection programs in most cities in the global South, and there is growing evidence about the fact that it is the informal sector that retrieves most of the recyclable materials (Chokhandre, Singh &

A Call for a Socially Restorative Circular Economy: Waste Pickers in the Recycled Plastics Supply Chain

“…1) in addition to the existing contributions from thinking on industrial ecology, cradle-tocradle, and biomimicry. Ecological economy emphasises precaution, responsibility, and the interdependence between human economy and ecosystems [28,37]. Coupling the ecological economy with the social and solidarity economy described above draws attention to innovative forms of economic interactions, where people and the environment transcend profit generation and efficiency orientation.…”

“…Currently, waste collection is central to the recycling loop of the contemporary circular economy, yet it is poorly paid, informal, insecure, and often dangerous [36,76,95]. Despite the many local and national interventions aimed at improving the lives and livelihoods of waste pickers, there is still a long way to go ( [30,37,70]; [12,59]; [52,65]). Overall, the recycling loop of the circular economy continues to fail according to social indicators for waste pickers.…”

“…Waste pickers have long-engaged in resource recovery, retrieving materials from waste streams and redirecting them into the recycling or reuse economy, making a living while also minimising resource loss. Waste picking preceded the conceptual framing of the circular economy; hence, arguably, waste pickers have been at the heart of the circular economy since its inception [30,37,82]. New circular economy recycling schemes have built upon this livelihood form, creating new work based upon increased demand for recyclable materials.…”

Environmental Justice and Circular Economy: Analyzing Justice for Waste Pickers in Upcoming Circular Economy in Fortaleza, Brazil

“…Figure 2 , based on [ 45 – 48 ], portrays a map of Fortaleza’s city wards according to their HDI, along with the location of the REDE associations. It is clear that most associations are based in wards of low HDIs, a possible indication of the precarious conditions most WPs live in [ 60 , 61 ].…”

Cambridge, Carnaval, and the ‘Actually Existing Circularity’ of Plastics

“…Such outcomes, I would suggest, are one of the consequences of circular economy initiatives that are often good for business, potentially good for the environment, but bad for groups such as waste-pickers or, in this case, working class carnival troupes that have long survived and thrived not only on cultures of repair and re-use but on access to discarded materials. This need not necessarily be the case, of course, and this paper's appeal, paraphrasing Gutberlet and Carenzo (2020), is to place such examples of actually existing circularity at the heart of a new circular economy, giving them the credit that they deserve.…”