Waste-pickers punished
Their journey has not been easy. Federico Parra, from the NGO Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) explains: “The structural transformation of public services from 1992 to 2012 prioritised privatisation of waste services while punishing and attacking waste-pickers.” Expelled from dumpsites in the 1980s when Colombia adopted international standards on landfill, waste-pickers began to make their living on the streets, but they had to work around legislative restrictions that marginalised their role. When Bogotá privatised waste services in the 1990s, cutting-off their access to materials, the waste-pickers organised. Recicladores formed collective associations, organised demonstrations and public protests, and mounted legal challenges. A string of rulings from the Constitutional Court ordered that municipal governments should undertake affirmative actions and consider waste-pickers when awarding contracts. A major turning point came in 2011 when four private companies monopolised a US$1.7-billion (£1.3 billion) tender for management of Bogotá’s waste. Colombia’s Constitutional Court rendered the tender null, and ordered Bogotá to recognise recicladores as subjects of special protection, remunerate them for their part in the waste system, and promote their social, organisational and entrepreneurial potential.Becoming authorised
Working successfully with government means conforming to regulations and inspections. A large part of Nohra’s work is about ensuring that the ARB is organisationally, financially and logistically formalised, and providing support to other associations to do the same. Recognising and remunerating the thousands of waste-pickers who play a part in the system is a complex and on-going process. Associations and their bodegas have to go through audits and new monitoring systems to become authorised weigh centres. To be eligible for payment, recicladores have had to take part in a census, gain access to a banking service, and then weigh and register their materials at one of the authorised centres. The first 300 waste-pickers received payment in 2013, which amounted to around three times their previous earnings. Last December, recognised associations started to administer payments to waste-pickers: six associations are now recognised, representing 5,000 workers. A further 144 waste-pickers’ organisations are at various stages of the formalisation process. This is combined with strong ambitions for technical and logistical improvements to ensure better prices for materials and more efficient operations. Before the 2011 court ruling, ARB had developed a real-time online system for material collections data, which was crucial for implementing the payment system. Recicladores can weigh and register their materials at bodegas, or have their materials collected by ARB’s weigh-trucks at specific points in the city. The ARB and partners are also running a number of technical pilot projects. These include an e-waste recovery scheme by the Asociación Puerta de Oro (Door of Gold), where computers, printers, televisions, and other household electronics are disassembled and stripped of valuable materials such as copper, and an organics recovery scheme of grass-cuttings, food waste and tree-cuttings at a major park in Bogotá, which produces organic fertiliser to use onsite. The Asociación de Recicladores de Mujeres specialises in improving the quality of recovered plastic bags and PET, with organisational processes for cleaning bottles and removing bottle tops. While most materials are still collected on the street, the ARB also runs a micro-route for collection of pre-sorted recycling from some residents. This strengthens their recognition as public service providers. “Most of public really appreciates work of recyclers”, explains Padilla. “Recicladores are proactive and speak to people about recycling on the streets, which helps build awareness of the importance of recycling as well the association.”Rachel Simon is an environmental researcher and campaigner, with a special interest in fossil fuel extraction and community led environmental action. Before travelling to Belize (where she wrote a blog and collected interviews for LAB’s Voices project) she worked at an environmental consultancy, and she has been involved in the Fossil Free divestment campaign among others. Rachel has just completed an MSc in Environmental Policy where she focused on climate change in South America and protest in Latin American cities. Her first degree was in Classics — Latin and Ancient Greek literature and culture.