Informal Waste Collection
This is a page on informal waste collection.
Seed content[edit]
Ethiopia[edit]
But we also found that although not formally organized or recognized, informal waste collection, recycling and reusing systems greatly support the formal waste management system by creating a source of inputs for what would have ended up in landfills.
Source: AccLab Blog
In previous explorations, we learned that effective solid waste management relays heavily on proper sorting and segregation of the different types of wastes. Therefore, we wanted to learn how the formal waste management system handles sorting, with emphasis on households. In parallel, we looked into the vast informal waste collecting and recycling market.
Source: AccLab Blog
Given the variety of factors contributing to the current system, we must have a portfolio approach to improve the on-site storage and segregation practice at households and MSEs, who are involved in waste collection and transportation. The reflections that we get on creating jobs from waste value chain pushes us to dig more in the informal waste pickers and their contribution to the system. Informal waste collection The biggest role in recycling and reusing in the city is played by the informal sector. A very common example is what is called a “korale”, men who canvas neighbourhoods buying peoples’ waste like old shoes, broken appliances, large jerrycans, or even old pots and pans, that they can fix up or use to make other things they can sell.
Source: AccLab Blog
Ghana[edit]
It costs local businesses about 2 GHC ($0.40) daily to have waste collected by the formal sector - the informal sector charges about 50 pesewas ($0.10). Unsurprisingly, informal collection is a very popular option for waste disposal. A frequent narrative is that high unemployment and the relatively low start-up costs of informal waste-collection attract the unemployed to waste-collection – a positive outcome for employment. Competition among waste-collectors then drives costs to residents down – also a positive outcome for the community, but with unintended consequences. Where income (from collection) cannot cover costs (of transport to transit points and then landfills) some collectors may resort to dumping.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Sectors
As registration progressed, informal collectors were approached to partner with the company, either by continuing to collect waste or becoming streetcleaners with equipment (brooms and tricycles) provided by the company. In this way, some informal collectors have maintained their incomes while contributing their detailed knowledge of waste-management in the area.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
The analysis suggests that instead of “either…or” debates about formal or informal waste-collection, blended “both…and” partnerships can work on the ground. In Accra, rapid urbanization has already made these old dichotomies less relevant. Innovative minds are leveraging cross-sectoral knowledge and innovation to test different partnership models (including very loose arrangements).
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Hybrid Models
Will job opportunities created for informal waste-collectors be maintained, given the economic challenges from COVID-19?
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
Lao PDR[edit]
We learned that in Vietnam, people refused to use waste collection services despite the lower fee. Local communities in Danang preferred to sell their household trash to informal waste pickers for a small financial gain.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
The UNDP Accelerator Lab Network has been working on both macro (creating waste management policy) and microscale (helping informal waste pickers access the proper waste collection system) waste management worldwide. The team in Lao PDR, too, is currently focusing on this topic, particularly on understanding single-use plastic pollution in the capital, Vientiane.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
Syria[edit]
What happens to waste after it is dumped in the waste bins? Both direct observation and FGD with waste workers showed that there is a significant increase in the number of informal waste pickers. Waste picking is the new source of income in town! Despite the many health risks posed by handling waste, especially during the time of COVID, you can see women, men, children, and elderly digging the treasures out from a neighborhood waste bin. Plastic bottles, old plastic hoses, metal cans, batteries, dry carton boxes, and many other “valuable” and exchangeable materials will be dug out of the bin and placed expertly in separate bags.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
Vietnam[edit]
With the support of DONRE, I hit the street to conduct ethnographic field research on household waste sorting habits. I had the chance to talk with many amazing people from informal waste pickers and environmental officers to government officials, local NGOs and businesses, who work hard every day to keep the streets of Da Nang clean. As we immersed ourselves deeper in the local reality and heard directly from the people who were most affected by the challenge, many of our initial assumptions were swiftly debunked. From seemingly simple things like why people are putting trash in front of their house to larger questions like where are the main sources of the plastic waste generation? -- there was always more than what meets the eye.Tapping into local knowledge - an interview with a waste collection officer
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Environment and Sustainability, Informal Workers
Tallying up the resultAfter we processed the data in phase 3, we found that the results exceeded our own expectations. The number of the wrong type of waste collected went from increasingly high to practically zero, and the number of people using bins increased more than 5 times compared to the baseline. Over 90% of the people surveyed in the experiment agreed to recommend the city government to apply this model to the city-wide scale. Informal waste pickers stopped trying to pick recyclables from the bins but bought them in nicely sorted out piles from the apartment’s communities. Most importantly, the Government now had a viable option to invest its waste infrastructure money in!
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
From 2019, the Accelerator Lab (AccLab) in Viet Nam, which is also part of UNDP global network of 90 AccLabs, has been carrying a spirit of social innovation experiments. In Da Nang, the group had some typical environmental activities such as: Experimenting on building a model of friendly garbage classification in the Cam Le apartment complex; and Study on the informal waste collection ecosystem and the impact of COVID on bottles.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Ecosystems
After conducting interviews and surveys, we found out that the practice of sorting valuable waste (glass bottles, metal cans, paper etc.…) is already quite common in many households. This isn’t obvious if you only look at the formal waste disposal infrastructure. Currently, there is no comprehensive waste separation infrastructure for different types of waste in Da Nang. Most of the daily solid waste that is collected by Da Nang’s environmental company gets thrown into single compartment garbage trucks that end up in the landfill. So that begs the question, why bother sorting waste at all? It turns out, the informal sector plays a huge role here. Informal waste pickers, usually women, go around blocks every day to collect valuable household waste to earn their income. As for households, sorting valuable waste is a way to keep the house clean, sell for scraps, and help the environment.We conducted a random-sampling survey in Danang on households’ waste sorting habit (n=193) with the support of our colleagues at PAPI
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers