Global Alliance of Waste Pickers

Organizations representing workers in informal employment – waste pickers, home‐based workers, street vendors and domestic workers, including migrant workers – recognize the social and solidarity economy (SSE) as a critical pathway to improving livelihoods, strengthening collective organization and advancing decent work. This is particularly important given that women are disproportionately represented in informal employment due to structural inequalities, including limited access to opportunities and persistent gender and cultural biases.

For global networks such as HomeNet International (HNI), International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP), International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), StreetNet International (SNI) and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), SSE entities including cooperatives, associations, mutuals and self‐help groups have served as practical economic infrastructures through which workers organize production, stabilize incomes, access resources and strengthen their collective voice.

We are concerned that growing global uncertainty is placing renewed strain on international cooperation at a time when multilateral efforts, including those of the International Labour Organization (ILO), remain essential to advancing decent work for workers in informal employment.

Across the world, workers in informal employment face severe decent‐work deficits: unstable incomes, limited access to social protection, restricted bargaining power and persistent barriers to formal recognition as workers. Today, 58% of the global workforce (representing two billion people) are informally employed – in sectors such as waste picking, home‐based work, street vending, domestic work and care services.

For these workers, the social and solidarity economy represents far more than an aspirational concept. For millions of workers in informal employment, SSE entities function as concrete pathways to improve incomes and livelihoods. Through cooperatives, associations, mutuals, self‐help groups and other collective economic organizations, workers are able to coordinate production, reduce costs, stabilize incomes, access solidarity‐based finance and build forms of social protection where formal systems remain inaccessible. These collective and solidarity‐based economic arrangements are particularly crucial for women in informal employment, who face structural inequalities, lower incomes, greater exposure to violence, harassment and discrimination, and a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work.

The experiences of workers in our sectors demonstrate how collective economic organization strengthens workers’ bargaining power with municipalities, governments, employers and enterprises. By pooling resources, knowledge and infrastructure, SSE entities help workers overcome structural barriers that would be impossible to address individually. They do this while reinforcing democratic governance and collective representation.

Our organizations have welcomed the recognition of cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy in international labour standards, such as ILO Recommendation 193 on the Promotion of Cooperatives, 2002, and Recommendation 204 concerning the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy, 2015. The 2022 ILO Resolution concerning Decent Work and the Social and Solidarity Economy and the 2023 and 2024 UN resolutions to promote the social and solidarity economy also reflect important milestones in recognizing the role of collective economic models in advancing decent work. In addition, the 2025 ILO policy guidelines for the promotion of decent work in recycling highlights the importance of SSE approaches in supporting workers in informal employment, particularly waste pickers.

Leadership within the UN system, particularly through the ILO’s work with its constituents and partners, has played a critical role in furthering research, policy dialogue and international cooperation to advance the social and solidarity economy. We greatly appreciate the partnership that has developed over the years between
our global networks and the ILO, including its Cooperative and Social and Solidarity Economy Unit, and we look forward to continuing and deepening this collaboration in the years ahead.

In the context of tightening fiscal space, competing priorities and heightened global uncertainty, it is essential that the progress made in recognizing and supporting the social and solidarity economy not only continues but expands.

The social and solidarity economy should not be understood as a marginal or secondary approach to economic development. Rather, it represents a set of existing economic practices through which workers in informal employment collectively build more stable livelihoods, strengthen their rights, and contribute to more inclusive and resilient economies and societies.

In this sense, promoting and defending the social and solidarity economy is intrinsically linked to advancing gender equality, not only by expanding women’s economic opportunities, but by contributing to the transformation of structural conditions of exploitation and discrimination that underpin both informal employment and gender inequality.

Maintaining and strengthening policy, legal and programmatic support for the social and solidarity economy within the ILO’s mandate and across the broader multilateral system is essential to ensuring that pathways toward decent work for millions of workers in informal employment remain grounded not only in market mechanisms but also in solidarity, democratic participation and collective economic organization.

We urge governments, workers’ organizations, international institutions and development partners to boost the policy and institutional frameworks that will enable the social and solidarity economy to deploy its full potential.

HomeNet International is a global network of membership‐based workers’ organizations that represents more than 1.3 million home‐based workers, from 71 organizations spread across 30 countries.
Visit www.homenetinternational.org.

The International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP) is a global union of 50 waste picker organizations, representing more than 460,000 workers across 34 countries. The IAWP is committed to advancing the rights and strengthening the organizing efforts of waste pickers.
Visit www.globalrec.org.

The International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) is internationally recognized as a Global Union Federation. Made up of 93 affiliates from 70 countries, the IDWF serves a membership of over 675,900 domestic/ household workers. Most are organized in trade unions and others in associations, networks and worker cooperatives.
Visit www.idwfed.org.

StreetNet International is a global organization of committed informal traders, with the goal to promote and leverage an autonomous and democratic alliance of street vendors, market vendors, hawkers and cross‐border traders. StreetNet International is present in more than 50 countries and represents over 700,000 members worldwide.
Visit www.streetnet.org.za.

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global network focused on empowering the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy to secure their livelihoods. We believe all workers should have equal economic opportunities, rights, protection and voice. WIEGO promotes change by improving statistics and expanding knowledge on the informal economy, building networks and capacity among informal worker organizations and, jointly with the networks and organizations, influencing local, national and international policies.
Visit www.wiego.org.

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Across the world, governments and private actors are shutting down dumpsites in the name of modernization, climate action, or urban order. But for the millions of waste pickers who have sustained recycling systems for decades, these closures do not feel like transitions. They are evictions. They mean losing the right to work, being pushed out of the city, being excluded from decisions that shape our lives, and being blamed for environmental problems we did not create. What is presented as progress often results in repression: sites close overnight, police arrive before social services, and companies take control of materials without acknowledging the workers who made those materials valuable in the first place.

From Africa to the Asia-Pacific, from the Americas to Europe, our affiliates report the same pattern when their workplaces are closed: no consultation, no guarantees, and no place for waste pickers in the so-called “new systems.” Environmental narratives, technical language, and regulatory frameworks are repeatedly used to justify the exclusion of workers—especially women, migrants, and racialized communities who already face multiple forms of inequality. These are not isolated cases; they represent a global political trend that threatens our livelihoods, our dignity, and the continuity of organized waste picker movements worldwide.

We reject the idea that waste pickers are a problem to be removed. For generations, we have diverted enormous quantities of materials from dumpsites, reduced emissions, and protected ecosystems—long before recycling, reusing, and repairing became part of official environmental agendas. Today, despite vast amounts of valuable materials being wasted or captured by corporations, waste pickers are increasingly denied access to recyclables, reusable materials, and repairable goods. A system that discards workers while protecting profits is neither modern nor sustainable.

No dumpsite closure can be legitimate without the full participation of waste pickers from the outset. We demand recognition as workers who need rights, and a decisive role in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of any waste system reforms. Any restructuring must guarantee secure livelihoods, continued access to materials, and real alternatives for those who choose different pathways. Anything less is forced displacement.

We denounce all forms of criminalization and repression. Sudden closures, violent evictions, and narratives that portray waste pickers as obstacles to environmental progress are incompatible with a just and democratic transition.

We draw a clear line: we will not accept closures that erase our work, deny our access to materials, projects that dispossess us of value, or models that treat poor workers as disposable. Our vision is of cities where waste pickers are recognized as environmental workers, with dignified working conditions, stable incomes, political voice, and shared control over the systems they sustain.

We speak with one global voice: Work with us. Invest in us. Recognize us. Partner with us. A world without waste pickers is a world with more waste—and less justice.

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In nearly every country on earth, waste pickers are active in the recovery of materials for reuse and recycling, with great benefit to human and environmental health.  Globally, we are responsible for handling 60% of the plastics collected for recycling, diverting materials that would otherwise be burned in uncontrolled fire (Velis, 2022), and filling critical gaps and cost savings across waste management systems.  Furthermore, our livelihoods are both dependent on, and victims of the culture of disposability. 

Our unpaid and underpaid labor feeds industrial profits and subsidizes the cost of a convenient society. We waste pickers are innovative in our ability to find uses and markets for things, including hard-to-recycle materials like textiles, which we recover for daily use, resale, mending, upcycling, washing, and redistribution, rag and rug-making, and recycling.

Through our work in recycling we contribute substantially to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Tentative estimates suggest that each waste picker prevents the emission of approximately 44 tonnes of CO2eq each year, with waste pickers overall preventing between 7 and 17 percent of the 2.3 billion tonnes generated by the waste sector (Cook and Cass Talbott, forthcoming).

Our work is essential to our survival, and yet comes at a considerable cost to our health. We are exposed to dangerous chemicals, dust, sharps- even radiation- through our work, with waste management ranking among one of the world’s most dangerous occupations.  

As part of the working poor, we are more likely to live in low-income and informal settlements that lack adequate waste management services- compromising our right to a clean and healthy environment as we are forced to burn, bury, and open dump our waste. Meanwhile, a growing share of packaging is low-value, low-recyclability plastics with no incentive for collection (Tearfund 2019). We know very well the sight and smell of burning plastic and the threat of losing our jobs. 

In the face of these injustices, the International Alliance of Waste Pickers stands for the phasing out of single-use plastics and fast fashion. But for such a transition to be just, we must prioritize in the planning and implementation of the shift back towards reuse- and repair-based economies, including creating alternative pathways to work for workers engaged in the production, reuse, and recycling of single-use plastics and fast fashion.  

For this to be possible, we need adequate financial mechanisms that prioritize direct and predictable access through simplified application and approval processes (Tearfund and IAWP 2025), and supportive partnerships.  

Meanwhile, the phase-out of chemicals of concern, especially those associated with plastic waste and recycling (Brosché et al, 2025), is essential and urgent. In a rapidly changing, and fast digitalizing, world, we need recognition in public policy, but also cannot wait for it to protect us. The right and opportunity to organize and bargain collectively is therefore critical in order for us to gain protections to our health and safety.  

Brosché, s., et al. 2025. Plastics Poison the Workplace II: Chemical exposures to plastic waste and recycling workers in Kenya and Thailand. IPEN, Arnika, EARTH, and CEJAD. https://ipen.org/sites/default/files/documents/ipen-wristbands_report-kenya_thailand-final-3_small.pdf 

Cook and Cass Talbott. Forthcoming. Mitigating from the Margins: Waste Picker Impact on Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A quantitative appraisal and evaluation of the Waste Picker Greenhouse Gas Calculator (WPGGC).  WIEGO and the International Alliance of Waste Pickers.

Pew and SYSTEMIQ. 2022.Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution. https://www.systemiq.earth/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ BreakingThePlasticWave_MainReport.pdf

Tearfund. 2019. No Time to Waste. https://learn.tearfund.org/-/media/learn/resources/reports/2019-tearfund-consortium-no-time-to-waste-en.pdf 

Tearfund and IAWP. 2025. The plastics treaty finance mechanism: Lessons from other Multilateral Environmental Agreements regarding access for waste pickers and other grassroots groups

Velis, C.A., 2022. Plastic pollution global treaty to cover waste pickers and open burning? Waste Manage. Res. 40(1), 1-2.

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Make just transition a core obligation of the plastic treaty!

An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) is the space where countries discuss and decide in the plenary, in this case about the plastic pollution problem to agree on a legal binding International treaty.

The International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP), together with other organizations (NGO, foundations, etc.) share the convention space to try to influence the countries that have access and right to vote in the plenary.

This second day of the INC-2 in Paris, the plenary continued the debate over the INC’s rules of procedure, wanting to reverse precedent and agreed processes from other Multilateral Environmental Agreements by eliminating voting procedures.

The IAWP, together with  Just Transition Initiative, organized a side meeting [in a venue close to the UNESCO building, where the convention takes place] to discuss What must the treaty text contain to deliver a just transition?

We invited member states and observers to focus on what the treaty text must contain to deliver a just transition. The discussion benefitted from insights from the Governments of Kenya, South Africa, and Brazil, the International Labour Organization, and members of the International Alliance of Waste Pickers. The event was organized with the support of WWF, WIEGO, and Tearfund.

https://www.facebook.com/GlobalRec/videos/580285577556161/

(Choose photo https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aLR2DvVJiaxiyMrQosDQQrIHMMjW46xc?usp=share_link)

Waste pickers at the heart of South Africa’s recycling economy

The event was opened by Tshilidzi Ligaraba, Chief Director, Integrated Waste Management (South Africa), who reiterated the importance of participation of all stakeholders in the process towards a just transition, including governments, international organizations, businesses, and waste pickers across the world. Ligaraba shared that waste pickers are recognized in South Africa’s national waste management strategy, which provides guidelines for municipalities to integrate waste pickers through separation at source initiatives, waste picker registration, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The guidelines are built on principles of recognition, respect, and meaningful engagement, emphasizing the need to build on existing networks for waste management and improving working conditions for the 60-90.000 waste pickers that are at the heart of South Africa’s recycling economy, said Ligaraba.

Just transition must be a core obligation of this treaty

Johnson Doe, president of Green Waste Pickers Cooperative and member of the International Alliance of Waste Pickers , provided insights into the challenges faced by waste pickers in Kpone dumpsite in Ghana, including the closure of dumpsites, the privatization of waste management, and the lack of inclusion by the government. Doe explained that circular economy policies tend to divert valuable recyclables from waste pickers and into the hands of private businesses, whilst plans are in place to close the landfill where Doe and his colleagues have been recovering waste for years, without a strategy to safeguard livelihoods. With entrepreneurial drive and in the pursuit of alternative livelihood opportunities, waste pickers began providing door-step collection to households in a nearby community lacking waste collection services and drafted a proposal for the municipality to be contracted for the same. Despite reducing the environmental and societal burden of mismanaged waste, the municipality required waste pickers to form a cooperative to be contracted for municipal waste collection.

However, nearly a year after its registration, the municipality has not yet contracted the association for doorstep waste collection. Johnson Doe highlighted the lack of participation of waste pickers in discussions around waste management in the country and the need for waste pickers to speak for themselves. A just transition includes legal recognition of the rights of waste pickers to maintain a role in the system, which must be mandatory and a core obligation of both national laws and in the plastic treaty, said Johnson, and argued that if a just transition is left as a voluntary measure, it will not happen for the majority of waste pickers around the world.

Ensuring that resources reach waste pickers

Ending plastic pollution is not just about the environment, but part of a sustainable development strategy to end poverty, stated Adalberto Maluf, Vice-minister of Environment, Brazil, and highlights that the integration of waste pickers across the value chain is a priority for the government. Maluf emphasized that the treaty should address how waste pickers can be empowered and fairly remunerated. Waste pickers are not getting a fair share of the resources, despite handling around 90% of waste in Brazil, says Maluf. He identified that there is a need to channel funding from the private sector through EPR and reverse logistics systems that ensures transparency, improved labour rights, and that funding goes directly to waste pickers and their cooperatives. He identified that global virgin plastic prices and standards for recycled content can severely disrupt local recycling markets and the income of waste pickers. To open importation of recyclable waste in Brazil, in the past years, has strongly impacted waste pickers by reducing the price of recyclables.

Maluf is hopeful that with new policies to control this situation by the new government, new recycling certificates, and the establishment of a global fund could contribute to channel resources to those who need it the most and hopes that Brazil’s 20 years of experience working on the integration of waste pickers can inspire other countries.

Providing mechanisms supporting a just transition across the value chain

Informal workers play an important role in recycling economies, said Ed Shepherd from Unilever. He argues for the treaty to provide mechanisms supporting a just transition across the value chain, including for waste pickers and informed by the workers themselves. Unilever has partnered with other companies in the Fair Circularity Initiative, which contains a set of principles for the engagement of the informal sector to reach broader objectives of higher levels of recycled content, better material qualities, and transparency across the value chain, as well as mitigating and preventing negative impacts on human rights while supporting livelihoods. On behalf of the Business Coalition, Shepherd voiced support for the just transition to be a core obligation of the treaty.

“Criteria for decent jobs, social security, social dialogue, and labour standards”

Social justice means different things to different people, said Yasuhiko Kamakura, International Labour Organisation (ILO), and elaborated that for ILO, social justice is embedded in the decent work agenda, including criteria for decent jobs, social security, social dialogue, and labour standards. These standards are part of ILOs fundamental human and labour standards, which member states are already committed to. This means that regardless of the treaty being ratified, members of the ILO must commit to ensuring decent work for everyone. A just transition in the context of a global treaty needs to be meaningful, beyond words on a paper, Kamakura argues, which demands implementation measures and core obligations.

“Waste pickers are the most important link in the value chain”

Soledad Mella, International Alliance of Waste Pickers and ANARCH (Chile), also called on delegations to make a just transition a core obligation of the treaty, protecting all the actors in the plastic value chain, particularly the 20 million waste pickers and other frontline communities whose social, labour and human rights are at risk. Acknowledging the difficult task of developing a plastic treaty, Soledad highlighted the need for recognizing waste pickers in the process of reducing plastic pollution for the treaty to have a global impact from environmental to humanitarian levels. Financial support, infrastructure, technology, education, training, and strengthening of organizations and cooperatives are essential aspects of ensuring a just transition for grassroot waste pickers, Soledad said. Further, Soledad explicitly called upon member states to empower waste pickers to expand reuse and repair systems, for waste picker organizations to be considered for municipal waste collection contracts, and to be clear that waste pickers are the most important link in the value chain. A just transition without waste pickers is garbage, she concludes, before the floor was opened for discussion.

“Just transition initiative”

During the discussions, the representatives from South Africa and Kenya reiterated their support of waste pickers through the just transition initiative. They indicated that a just transition should be a core obligation and suggested that guidelines for the just transition of waste pickers could be developed as a tool to support the implementation of National Action Plans (NAPs). Johnson Doe emphasized the importance of leaving no one behind in the transition towards reducing plastic pollution across the value chain, whilst Soledad Mella recognized the precarious working and living conditions amongst informal waste pickers and invited all workers to become part of the just transition movement.

Other meetings:

• Johnson Doe meeting with Ghana’s Ministry of environment.
• Severino Lima Jr (MNCR, Brazil) was present at ISWA side event. Adalberto Maluf, National Secretary of Environment of Brazil, highlighted the role and need for empowering waste pickers in Brazil, being a key priority for the current government. He mentioned this after he shared that the treaty is more than ending plastic pollution, that it is part of a sustainable development strategy and ending poverty. He shared that the Brazilian president spends Christmas with the waste picker cooperative every year, and pointed to Severino in the audience!
• Barbara at…

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