March 1 marks International Waste Pickers Day– a date commemorating a tragedy when at least 11 waste pickers were murdered in Colombia in 1992 by university guards seeking bodies to sell to medical schools.
Since 2008, following the first World Conference of Waste Pickers in Bogotá, this date has transformed into a global observance recognising the environmental and economic contributions, and ongoing struggles of waste pickers worldwide.
Waste pickers constitute an environmental workforce whose contributions remain largely invisible in official sustainability metrics. Functioning predominantly within informal economies, these individuals serve as the backbone of resource recovery efforts worldwide.
Their daily work – collecting, sorting, and processing discarded materials – diverts millions of tons of recyclables from landfills annually, significantly reducing methane emissions and preventing pollutants from reaching waterways and ecosystems. According to estimates from the International Labour Office, approximately 1% of the urban workforce in developing countries – representing between 15 and 20 million individuals – earns their livelihood through recycling activities.
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In many Global South cities, waste pickers provide the only form of solid waste management in informal settlements and areas underserved by municipal collection systems, essentially subsidising public services through their labor.
Beyond mere collection, waste pickers have long been innovators in material recovery, developing systems well ahead of institutional recycling efforts. Their practices embody circular economy principles now being adopted by progressive municipalities and corporations worldwide. The environmental benefits extend beyond waste diversion – by reintroducing materials into production cycles, waste pickers conserve resources and the energy associated with their extraction and processing.
The economic paradox: Critical contributors without recognition
Waste pickers generate substantial economic value – providing industries with affordable raw materials, saving municipalities disposal costs, and creating self-sufficient livelihoods – yet remain among the most economically marginalised groups in society. In economic terms, waste pickers operate at the foundation of recycling supply chains worth billions globally. In many regions, they constitute the only recycling system available, providing free environmental services to municipalities that lack infrastructure for material recovery.
Across India’s urban centres, between 1.5 and 4 million waste pickers operate within informal economies, who systematically recover, categorise, and channel recyclable materials back into supply chains after collecting them from households, streets, municipal bins, dumping grounds, and processing centers.
In Delhi, an estimated 150,000 waste pickers operating in the informal economy recycle 20–25% of the city’s daily waste, reclaiming 2,000 tons and saving over Rs. 10 crore per day in waste management costs. Their efforts reduce greenhouse gas emissions 3.6 times, while each waste picker recovers over 60 kg of recyclables daily, earning Rs. 8,000–10,000 per month.
Despite creating this value, waste pickers typically earn subsistence wages while facing significant occupational hazards. The financial instability inherent to their work – affected by extreme weather conditions, market fluctuations, and access restrictions – further deepens their vulnerability. Without formal recognition, waste pickers remain excluded from social protection schemes despite performing essential environmental services.
Systemic challenges: From health risks to policy exclusion
The challenges facing waste pickers extend far beyond economic precarity. Daily exposure to hazardous materials – including medical waste, industrial chemicals, and decomposing organic matter – creates severe health risks made worse by inadequate access to protective equipment and healthcare.
The physical toll of collecting, transporting, and sorting materials without ergonomic tools leads to chronic injuries and disabilities that remain unaddressed by occupational health frameworks.
Social stigmatisation compounds these physical challenges. Waste pickers routinely face discrimination, harassment, and criminalisation despite providing essential services. This marginalisation extends to the policy level, where waste pickers remain underrepresented in decision-making processes that directly impact their livelihoods and working conditions.
Perhaps most threatening to waste picker livelihoods is the growing privatisation and formalisation of waste management systems. Without inclusive transition planning, these developments often displace waste pickers from accessing materials they have historically recovered. Corporate waste management contracts frequently establish exclusive rights to waste materials without provisions for integrating existing informal recyclers.
India’s 2024 draft SWM rules: A critical assessment
The December 2024 draft Solid Waste Management Rules introduced by India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change reflect the broader, often contradictory, approaches to waste picker integration. While the draft includes structural provisions aimed at formalising their role, certain elements could potentially weaken their position within waste management systems.
The draft rules introduce several positive steps toward formalising waste picker integration. State-level policies now explicitly recognise the integration of waste pickers, ensuring their inclusion in waste management systems. The Rural Development Department has been mandated to enforce integration, expanding its reach beyond urban areas.
Additionally, local bodies are now required to maintain ward-wise mapping of waste pickers, improving data collection and resource allocation. To support these efforts, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has been tasked with assisting states in implementing integration measures effectively.
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However, while these measures signal progress, other aspects of the draft rules risk reinforcing systemic barriers to full integration. The draft removes waste pickers from Material Recovery Facility (MRF) definitions, eliminates requirements for waste picker consultation in policy development, and dissolves State Level Advisory Boards where waste pickers previously had representation. Training provisions have been eliminated, and waste pickers were notably excluded from the Drafting Committee itself.
The draft also imposes potentially exclusionary requirements, including heavy reporting burdens and mandates to work with authorised recyclers only – provisions that could effectively bar informal waste pickers lacking authorisation from continuing their work. Most critically, the draft omits specific mechanisms for supporting self-help groups and cooperatives, removes waste dealers from consideration, and fails to address social welfare needs.
The integration gap: From acknowledgment to implementation
True integration requires more than recognition – it demands structural mechanisms that preserve livelihoods while improving working conditions.
Effective integration frameworks must address several critical dimensions:
Governance Representation: Waste pickers require guaranteed representation in decision-making bodies at local, state, and national levels. The elimination of State Level Advisory Boards in the draft rules removes a critical platform for waste picker input on policy implementation.
Economic Models: Integration must preserve and enhance economic opportunities rather than displacing them. The draft rules lack specific provisions enabling waste picker cooperatives and self-help groups to participate as service providers in formal waste management.
Access Guarantees: As waste becomes increasingly recognised as a resource, waste pickers need protected access to materials. The draft rules fail to establish clear mechanisms ensuring waste pickers maintain access to recyclables within formalised systems.
Social Protection: Given the occupational hazards and economic vulnerabilities inherent to waste work, integration must include social welfare components. The absence of such provisions in the draft rules represents a significant missed opportunity.
Capacity Development: True integration requires supporting waste pickers in adapting to evolving technical and administrative requirements. The elimination of training provisions in the draft rules undermines this essential component.
Addressing these gaps requires structural changes at both local and state governance levels. Local bodies should establish participatory committees with waste picker representation to oversee integration processes and monitor implementation. Registration systems for waste pickers should be enabling rather than restrictive, designed to extend benefits and protections rather than imposing bureaucratic barriers.
At the state level, the draft rules should reinstate and strengthen Advisory Boards with guaranteed waste picker representation. States should be mandated to develop specific schemes supporting waste picker cooperatives and self-help groups to participate in formal waste management as service providers. Technology assessment, contract design, and subsidy allocation should explicitly incorporate waste picker perspectives to ensure technologies and systems complement rather than displace their work.
From recognition to structural change
Policy developments like India’s draft SWM Rules offer an opportunity to move beyond symbolic recognition toward structural changes that truly honour waste pickers’ contributions. This requires shifting from tokenistic acknowledgment to meaningful integration frameworks that preserve livelihoods while improving working conditions.
The environmental challenges facing our planet demand utilising the expertise and capacity of all waste recovery systems – including the informal networks that have historically led resource recovery efforts. By addressing the integration gaps in the current draft rules, policymakers can create waste management frameworks that achieve environmental goals while advancing social equity.
International Waste Pickers Day stands as both commemoration and call to action – honouring those who reclaim resources from our discards while advocating for systems that recognise this essential work. Through thoughtful policy development that genuinely engages waste pickers as partners rather than problems, we can build waste management systems that are environmentally sustainable, economically viable, and socially just.
The writer is an urban researcher and the coordinator of the Delhi Roundtable on Solid Waste Management (DRT), a city-level platform of organizations working to strengthen waste pickers’ rights and improve their working conditions in Delhi NCR.
