IF IT AIN

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IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX ITAnne Scheinberg,
WASTE, ltascheinberg_at_waste.nlgt
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Zero Waste meets the Global Informal Recycling
Sector

• This presentation is a work-in-process.
  Citations are permitted and should state this.
• Thanks to Reka Soos, Michael Simpson, and Bharati
  Chaturvedi for suggestions in this version, and
  to Sandra Cointreau at the World Bank for posting
  an earlier version on their website.
• Thanks also to GTZ and the German Ministry of
  Foreign Affairs, BMZ, for funding the study
  Economic Aspects of the Informal Sector In Solid
  Waste in 2006-2007.
• Additional suggestions are actively invited,
  please send them to ltascheinberg_at_antenna.nlgt.

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Welcome!

• A short personal introduction
• Organisation of this presentation
• Informal recovery and recycling
• Economic aspects of the the global informal
  sector in solid waste
• Zero Waste and the Informal Sector
  Insurmountable opportunity?
• Resources
• Questions and discussion

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Part 1. Informal recovery -- a part of urban
life for centuries

• supports women, men an children
• in rural areas as gleaning,
• in urban areas in the form of informal recycling,
  referred to as rag picking or waste picking or
  scavenging.
• a source of livelihood to groups with limited
  access to the formal labour market
• few barriers to entry for
• attracts internal or international migrants,
  specific ethnic or social groups, low castes,
  landless peasants
• Those who could survive the working conditions,
  could earn a reasonable living for their families
  and benefit their cities.
• Info drawn from GTZ/CWG 2007, ILO 2004, and
  Scheinberg, Mitrovic and Post 2007

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Waste picking represents

• 1. the foundation of most -- if not all --
  recycling activity prior to the modernisation
  process
• the bottom layer of activity in the so-called
  secondary materials pyramid, also called the
  recycling supply chain
• a global phenomenon with predictable
  characteristics
• a rational -- even strategic -- choice of
  livelihood for disadvantaged groups -- internal
  migrants, ethnic or religious minorities, women
  heads of household, illiterate or uneducated
  persons
• maybe the most misunderstood global phenomenon

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Informals are private entrepreneurs

1. Members of the informal sector in solid waste and
   recycling are private sector entrepreneurs.
2. Informal recycling offers a livelihood and income
   which they could not otherwise manage to achieve.
   
3. The informal sector in contrast with municipal
   cleansing companies or recycling programmes
   only engages in profitable activities.

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Commodities- or service-based economic
activities.

• Commodities-based activities
• focus on finding, possessing, upgrading, and
  trading (or in some cases using) materials and
  items.
• are paid for according to the weight, volume, or
  number of units of what is recovered, traded,
  used.
• Service-based activities
• focus on doing something which someone or some
  institution values.
• (almost) always involve some kind of removal
  dirt, contaminants, excreta, waste, water, etc.
• are paid based on a time measure of labour, in
  the informal sector often but not always days --
• or other service units, like metres of curb
  cleaned or number of households served.

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Part 2. Economic aspects of the the global
informal sector in solid waste

• The study was based on research done by an
  international team, including six city partners,
  who looked in detail at
• six cities in varying states of modernisation,
  with populations ranging from 380.000 to 17
  million
• the movement of materials through formal and
  informal solid waste and recycling processes
• efficiency and effectiveness of formal and
  informal recycling and organics recovery
• the operational, social, economic, and
  environmental impacts of informal activities
• relationships between formal and informal solid
  waste activities in six cities

The GTZ/CWG Study 2007,
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Six study cities, six local partners with
informal sector contacts / waste focus

• 1. Cairo, Egypt -- CID
• 2. Cluj-Napoca, Romania -- Green Partners
• 3. Lima, Peru -- IPES
• 4. Lusaka, Zambia -- Riverine Associates
• 5. Pune, India -- KKPKP (Union of waste pickers)
• 6. Quezon City (part of Metro Manila), the
  Philippines -- SWAPP (solid waste association)

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Process Flow of Cluj, Romania
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Six Study Cities, pop 32 million, have 75,000
informals
City Population People in the Informal Sector
Cairo, Egypt 17,620,580 40.000
Cluj, Romania 380,000 3.200
Lima, Peru 7,765,181 11.200
Lusaka, Zambia 1,238,227 390
Pune, India 3,000,000 9.500
Quezon City, Philippines 2,247,098 10.100
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Dump pickers, Vietnam
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Solid waste in the cities
City tpy residential tpy tons to formal percent recycled tons to informal percent recycled
Cairo 3,454,996 2,865,378 810,667 45 2,567,142 84
Cluj 194,458 163,085 145,779 6 14,575 100
Lima 2,725,424 1,956,228 1,839,711 0.5 848,364 62
Lusaka 301,840 245,996 90,720 13 98,170 6
Pune 544,215 369,745 394,200 0 132,130 89
Quezon City, 623,380 380,261 489,606 3 141,831 100
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Informal sector in the six cities
City Tonnes recycled/yr People in the Informal Sector
Cairo, Egypt 2.162.500 40.000
Cluj, Romania 14.700 3.200
Lima, Peru 529.400 11.200
Lusaka, Zambia 5.400 390
Pune, India 117.900 9.500
Quezon City, Philippines 141.800 10.100
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Informal Sector occupations

• IWBs (IWCs in SEE, CRs in India)
• Street and container pickers
• Truck and collection crew pickers
• Dump pickers
• Mobile traders
• Small junk shops
• Medium junk shops
• Swine feeding operations

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Itinerant waste buyer, Pakistan
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Recycling in the Formal Sector

• Collection crews
• Medium and large junk shops
• Intermediate processors
• Brokers
• MRFs and IPCs
• End-users and mills
• Composting facilities

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Distribution of main occupations by
City Dump pickers Street pickers IWBs Informal collectors/ ISPs/truck pickers
Cairo, Egypt lt1 lt1 lt1 71
Cluj, Romania 27 73 - -
Lima, Peru 6 57 16 1
Lusaka, Zambia 47 31 -
Pune, India 3 26 17 11
Quezon City, Philippines 26 37 18
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Informal sector and recycling industry
City Tonnes recycled/ yr Informal sector /day as of min wage annual sales to recycling industry
Cairo, Egypt 2.162.500 4.30 (no min wage) 26,337,000
Cluj, Romania 14.700 6.28 140 2,462,000
Lima, Peru 529.400 5.40 110 55,678,000
Lusaka, Zambia 5.400 6.52 280 471,000
Pune, India 117.900 2.80 240 15,381,000
Quezon City, Philippines 141.800 6.26 90 7,077,000
includes all activity in the supply chain per
city
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Scrap metal market, Eritrea
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The Recycling Supply Chain-theory
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And Practice
Plastic sheet molder
Glass cullet processor
Small junk shop glass-plastic
Small junk shop metal
Mixed junk shop at dump
Small junk shop paper
IWBs, street pickers, dump pickers, waste crews
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Main conclusions - 1

• Most recycling in the developing/transitional
  world is initiated by tiny private businesses in
  the informal sector, also true until the 1970s
  and 1980s in most OECD countries.
• These tiny businesss are risk-loving, highly
  entrepreneurial, and impenetrable to those
  outside the sector.
• 2. The global informal sector recycles millions
  of tons, putting materials into the recycling
  supply chain and supporting billions of people.
• 3. Informal sector workers often earn at least
  twice the legal minimum wage in their countries,
  but this may be the product of the work of more
  than one family member.

ILO 2004, GTZ/CWG study (2007) IFC Serbia
(2007)
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City of Diadema, Brazil contracts the informal
sector to collect recyclables

• Brazilian President Lula shows his support to the
  informal sector and encourages decision makers to
  recognise their value and use their professional
  expertise (2005)

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Main conclusions - 2

1. There are many connections between the formal and
   informal recycling sector in all countries
   informal sector workers accompany trucks, work at
   dumpsites, or empty containers. Formal sector
   workers moonlight selling recyclables or
   working for private (informal) collectors and
   recyclers.
2. Formal and informal sector are often natural
   partners, as materials pass back and forth
   between these sectors in the recycling chain.
   formal workers sell materials to informal junk
   shops, informal sector workers get their
   materials from formal disposal facilities.
3. Socio-cultural biases often interfere with the
   efficiency of this economic partnership. This
   tendency is exacerbated when there arer
   differences of religion, ethnicity, or when the
   informal sector consists of migrants.

ILO 2004, GTZ/CWG study (2007) IFC Serbia
(2007)
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Main conclusions - 3

1. Without the informal sector, recycling is a much
   more difficult and expensive business.
2. Informal recycling activities, are efficient and
   low-cost -- and intensify during the economic
   crisis.
3. Formal recycling initiatives have a tendency to
   be over-capitalised and to recover very small
   quantities
4. In contrast, informal recycling is
   under-capitalised and recovers very large
   volumes.
5. It is therefore critical for you-- the Zero Waste
   Dialogue, to promote and engage with the private
   recycling sector -- both informal and formal --
   rather than only supporting new, unfair,
   inefficient parallel new recycling initiatives

ILO 2004, GTZ/CWG study (2007) IFC Serbia
(2007)
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Part 3. Zero Waste and the Informal Sector
Insurmountable opportunity?

1. find networks or intermediary organisations and
   institutions working with informal sector leaderc
2. work with these intermediaries to engage the
   informal sector in a consultative, participatory
   process as part of the baseline assessment or
   situation analysis
3. engage with the capacities and professional
   identity of the informal sector, rather than
   their social problems
4. focus help and support on strengthening
   capacities of informal stakeholders to analyse
   their own operations

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Muncipality supports informal collectors of
recyclables in Lima, Peru
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Working with the Informal Sector-2

1. Always engage waste pickers and informals as part
   of campaigns, stakeholder processes, EIAs
2. Critically evaluate your and your citys approach
   to recycling as presented in consulting
   documents, investment plans, and/or municipal
   solid waste plans. Insist recycling plans should
   include and integrate the informal sector, rather
   than disenfranchising them and creating parallel
   systems
3. Encourage the development and testing of specific
   and practical strategies for supporting and
   encouraging local authorities and their agents to
   protect materials access and create new service
   opportunities for informals
4. Document experiments and evaluate their
   reasonableness, feasibility, sustainability, and
   cost-effectiveness
5. Analyse informal recovery and include the
   materials handled in all discussions and
   calculations on the way to Zero Waste

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Pune Municipality offers medical insurance to
waste pickers
A city agrees to pay medical bills of those who
clean it up Pune, India offers medical insurance
to its informal ragpickers
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Part 4. Some resources

• The Collaborative Working Group on Solid Waste
  Management in low- and middle-income countries
• www.cwgnet.net (and the informal sector network)
• WASTE, Advisers on Urban Environment
• www.waste.nl -- and coming soon, a new portal
• Chintan-Environmental, Delhi, India
• www.chintan-india.org

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If it aint broke, dont fix it -- an
explanation.

• Thank-you.
• Questions are welcome!
• ltascheinberg_at_waste.nlgt