INFORMAL SECTOR INVOLVEMENT
In the context of the project:
“Development of a National Strategy to Improve the Municipal Solid Waste Management Sector in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” (JO-RLDP), LOAN # 7422-JO)
funded by the Jordanian MoMA/CVDB (EBRD)
George TSIVILIS (LDK Consultants)
Christos STATHIS (LDK Consultants)
Costis NICOLOPOULOS (LDK Consultants)
Yanal ABEDA (Al Mostaqbal)
MAY 2014
Structure of Presentation
A. Existing Situation
B. Informal Waste Picking: Evil to fight or fertile
ground for social policy and local development?
C. Towards an integration policy
D. How to make it happen
E. Our Survey in Jordan
I. Waste picking as a widespread activity in nearly
all cities of developing countries
II. Demographic and Socio-cultural profile of Waste
Pickers
III. Health and Living Conditions of Waste Pickers
IV. Occupational Characteristics, Income, and Job
Satisfaction
V. Organizational Structure and Key Actors
A. Existing Situation
Urbanization
Expansion or creation of new slum areas and
squatter settlements
High immigration rates
Insufficient collection, uncontrolled street
collection points and improper disposal in open
landfills that allow disposed products to be readily
available for informal waste recycling.
A. Existing Situation
A1. Waste picking as a widespread activity in nearly all cities of developing
countries
Gender: both sexes, women > 50%
25% of women are widowed or deserted
Age: all ages, however > 65% belong to the age group 11-
35 years
Education: > 80% illiterate, 20% can write their names and a
marginal few can read and write
Waste pickers: the poorest of the poor
Or among the most socially excluded and discriminated
against populations in urban areas
subject to exploitation and discrimination by middlemen
and by local and federal government policies
A. Existing Situation
A2. Demographic and Socio-cultural profile of Waste Pickers
A3. Health and Living Conditions of Waste Pickers
Hazards facing on the job. Main sources of exposure:
viral infections (faeco-oral, or blood borne), leptospira
dog and rat bites
injuries (cut, pin prick, eyes)
harassment
insecure earnings
no legal protection
no social security
unfair practices by traders
A. Existing Situation
The most prevalent diseases and injuries:
skin problems (75%)
chronic backache (70%)
general weakness (65%)
chronic cough (40%)
jaundice (35%)
skin ulcer (30%)
chest pain and pain abdomen, genital ulcer, gland and bubo, diarrhea, eye infections (15%)
breathing difficulty (10%)
A. Existing Situation
A3. Health and Living Conditions of Waste Pickers
Overall health status of waste pickers:
< 10% immunized against tetanus toxoid
>60% do not remember having taken a single
dose of tetanus vaccine
A. Existing Situation
A3. Health and Living Conditions of Waste Pickers
Residence: in pavement dwellers, or in poor
quality slums, usually on or next to landfills
State of neighborhood:
Poor access to water and sanitation, health clinics,
roads and other infrastructure
70% open fields for defecation, <5% own latrines,
20% access to community latrines
Life expectancy: 35 – 39 years
A. Existing Situation
A3. Health and Living Conditions of Waste Pickers
A. Existing Situation
A3. Health and Living Conditions of Waste Pickers
A4. Occupational Characteristics, Income, and Job Satisfaction
Reasons for doing this work: Economical conditions and
limited employment opportunities
Children occupation: around 30% are < 15 years old
Most have been doing this job for quite a long time, more
than 40% have continued for > 10 years
Full-time job for most of them, <10% part time
Working hours per day: 4 – 6 h or more, depending on
travelling time and waste concentration, often plus 1-2h
spent in sorting out the items before selling
Average earnings: varies widely (10 –20 USD/d) depending upon the amount of efforts put in
A. Existing Situation
A5. Organizational Structure and Key Actors
Locations of collection: a substantial portion of
salvageable components are picked up and
recycled before final disposal, while a large
amount are still available in the disposal ground
Materials: paper, plastic, glass, leather, scrap
metals
Weekly collection = up to 200kgs/person
A. Existing Situation
The “Routes for sale”: Waste pickers – Itinerant buyers / sellers – Middlemen – Industry.
Middlemen:
i) small dealers (buy directly from waste pickers), usually from the locality, with a makeshift structure usually in an unauthorized space (by the side of the road or any other vacant space)
ii) big dealers or wholesalers (buy from small)
Involvement of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and of politicians
A. Existing Situation
A5. Organizational Structure and Key Actors
Prices Paid for Corrugated Cardboard Along the Recovery Route
Scavenger Sells to
Small Merchant
Small Merchant Sells
to Large
100 - 200 900
1,000 3,000
900 1,100
Large Merchant Sells
to Industry
1,800
5,500
4,000
A. Existing Situation
A5. Organizational Structure and Key Actors
Reduced municipal solid waste handling costs
The labor that they put into retrieving, collecting,
sorting, dismantling, breaking down, and
sometimes washing, converts the collected
materials into commodities that can be sold as
raw material to manufacturing industries.
Raw material costs for industry are lowered (while
improving competitiveness)
Contribute to national productivity and income
B. Informal Waste Picking: Evil to fight or fertile ground for social policy and local development?
B1. Economic benefits
Recovered materials for recycling
Resources are conserved
Pollution is reduced
Reduction of waste to be disposed – minimization
of environmental effects in landfills
B. Informal Waste Picking: Evil to fight or fertile ground for social policy and local development?
B2. Environmental benefits
Jobs are created
Poverty is reduced
Affordable SWM solutions that create income
opportunities for unskilled workers, particularly the
poor
B. Informal Waste Picking: Evil to fight or fertile ground for social policy and local development?
B3. Social benefits
The informal sector is largely unregulated and
unregistered
Also, it constitutes a very efficient and hard
competitor of legal collection and recovery
systems
In case it is further marginalized or declared
illegal, unemployment and crime will increase
and scavengers may get exploited by corrupt
government officials (e.g. in Mexico City)
The hygienic risk for inhabitants having direct
contact with waste
C. Towards an integration policy
C1. The sides of the issue
Repression
Neglect
Collusion
Stimulation
Policies that support scavenging
C. Towards an integration policy
C2. A wide variety of policies that deal with scavengers
The problems could be reduced by the introduction of a complete and formally structured collection service. However, the income of thousands of scavengers would be cut by this measure.
Instead, scavenging can render significant social and economical benefits if incorporated “symbiotically” into the formal waste management system.
C. Towards an integration policy
C2. A wide variety of policies that deal with scavengers
This incorporation:
a) will improve the efficiency of the formal system
b) will help the implementation of environmental regulations
c) will save energy and water while generating less pollution than the procurement of virgin materials (especially in countries where the formal system has limited capacity)
C. Towards an integration policy
C3. The need for policies that support scavenging
d) will reduce the required collection and disassembling capacity, and their costs
e) will create jobs for unskilled individuals
f) could bring some control over the scavengers’ operations, aiming to stop illegal dumping by keeping them accountable for their actions and creating incentives to bring the collected end-of-use products to specific places
C. Towards an integration policy
C3. The need for policies that support scavenging
Not confronted as illegal and punished (such as
in several Colombian, Indian, and Philippine
cities)
Neither as ignored (such as in several African
cities)
collection of recyclable materials constitutes
work and seeks recognition for the workers from
the State and the society
C. Towards an integration policy
C4. Basic concept
The faceless waste picker causing
nuisance at the municipal container has
become a person who interacts with
fellow residents on an equal footing !
C. Towards an integration policy
C4. Basic concept
“What is most important is the respect of other people.
Today, when I go to the department to collect my money, the
lady there asks me to sit on a sofa. If she is drinking tea, she
will ask for another cup for me. I can walk into the canteen
and sit at a table and eat, no one even looks at me, I am like
one of the University employees. That is what I value the
most.”
C. Towards an integration policy
C4. Basic concept
The basics of Model Proposed:
source segregation of waste;
direct collection of source segregated waste
from domestic and small commercial generators
separate collection of non-domestic wastes
(market waste, hotel waste, construction and
demolition waste, garden waste, e-waste);
decentralized waste management; diversion of
waste from landfills into bio-processing
(composting, bio-methanation) and recycling;
C. Towards an integration policy
C5. Formulate a Strategy
The basics of Model Proposed:
institutionalize the integration of informal waste
pickers by the municipal administration for
materials recovery and processing;
diversion of recyclables into recycling with the
benefit of strengthening of the informal waste
sector;
opportunities for up-skilling and upgrading work
for workers.
C. Towards an integration policy
C5. Formulate a Strategy
The basics of Model Proposed:
disposal tax on waste creating products and user
fees for waste collection.
photo-identity cards for waste pickers
formation of worker boards of waste pickers and
provision of social security measures
ensure rights to access and sell scrap;
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
The basics of Model Proposed:
Coop members are also trained to handle
mechanical composters and to do manual
composting.
Members also work in bio-methanation plants on
a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis.
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Cooperatives : the most successful scheme
a wholly worker-owned cooperative of waste pickers, itinerant waste buyers, waste collectors and other urban poor
The Coop provides front-end waste management services to City, with support from the Municipal Corporation.
NGO: the most successful vehicle
assisting groups of scavengers in other cities to also create cooperatives
awards grants, makes loans for specific coop projects, and provides the coops with legal, administrative and business assistance, as well as free consulting services
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Three key objectives:
1. to devise strategies and programs jointly with waste
pickers
2. to provide good daily waste collection services that are
compliant with waste management rules
3. to protect and upgrade the livelihoods of Coop members
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) / Contract
Nature of arrangement: Pro-poor public private partnership
Main tasks (e.g. door to door collection, sorting, etc.)
Value added services: collection of unwanted household
goods, of e-waste and garden waste and housekeeping
Mode of collection (e.g. manual push carts, small motorized
vehicles introduced in difficult terrain, etc.)
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Formal MOU / Contract
Workers involved (e.g. two workers for 200-300 households,
offices, shops, other establishments)
User fee: From all classes of users
User fee amount: per household per month depending
upon certain variables (in slums: to be part subsidized per
household per month)
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Formal MOU / Contract
Rights over recyclables (Collectors have rights over
recyclables and retain income from sale of scrap)
Fair trade centres (payment is immediate and in cash, and
receipts are issued for every transaction)
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Formal MOU / Contract
Obligations of the parties
The Municipality and the Coop work in tandem to ensure effective primary collection and onward transport for processing.
a) The Municipal Corporation:
Provision of collection equipment and safety gear (raincoats, footwear, uniforms, etc.)
Provision of office, infrastructure and resource recovery centres
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Formal MOU / Contract
Obligations of the parties
b) The Coop:
Meetings with neighborhood civic groups institutionalized by the Municipality and held monthly in each municipal ward
Carries out resident education campaigns on waste related issues
Operates help lines, one for customers and another for members who can call in with their problems
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Formal MOU / Contract
Terms of payment: Operational grant to cover
management costs and some operational costs reducing
annually in proportion to the sales revenue
C. Towards an integration policy
C6. Best practices applied internationally / Lessons learned
Carry out careful studies to fully understand the real
problems
Define Implementation Arrangements
Establish mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation)
Develop community based institutions to manage the daily activities
Experiment with different approaches
Involvement of municipal governments and agencies that
are intended to finance social programs in designing and planning them to ensure their commitment
D. How to make it happen
D. How to make it happen
TYPE 1. INDIVIDUAL WASTE-PICKERS
TYPE 2. MIDDLEMEN / CONTRACTORS
TYPE 3. INDUSTRY
E. Our Survey (*)
(*) “Development of a National Strategy to Improve the Municipal Solid Waste Management Sector in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”
E1. Questionnaires
Contents:
Identification of area of Quest. application
Demographic & Social features
Hazards, Health and Living Conditions
Occupational characteristics, Income, and Job
Satisfaction
Organizational Structure and Key Actors
Aspects towards an integration policy
E. Our Survey
E1. Questionnaires
E. Our Survey
E2. Sampling
# Target Activity Target Group Statistical Sample
Size
1 Informal waste-picking in the “city” level
Waste-pickers 80 waste-pickers
Middlemen 5 middlemen
Final destination (industry)
50%-75%*
2 Informal waste-picking in the “dumpsite” level
Waste-pickers 25 waste-pickers
3 Formal waste-picking in the “dumpsite” level
Waste-pickers 50 waste-pickers
Contractors 2
E. Our Survey
E3. Processing in Data Base
Based on the above, a SWOT analysis will be
conducted to measure the socioeconomic
impacts of these activities and provide
recommendations to improve the MSWM system
in Jordan.
E4. Socioeconomic Assessment
Thank you for your attention
George Tsivilis / LDK / Solid Waste Management Expert
(Principal Consultant)
on behalf of the LDK/Al Mostaqbal Team