informal sector and recycling

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Informal sector and recycling – global experiences Key steps towards effective inclusion in 21 st century SWM systems Conferencia ISWA Beacon sobre Minimización y Reciclado de Residuos ISWA Beacon Conference on Waste Prevention and Recycling 21-22 June - Buenos Aires, Argentina Costas Velis, David C Wilson Environmental and Water Resource Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Imperial College London ISWA Globalization and Waste Management Task Force

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Key steps towards effective inclusion in 21st century Key themes • Informal recycling: a reality in (environmentally) developing countries • Western-world recycling modes: an evolving selection of options • Evidence on key aspects of informal recycling (financial - mainly, environmental, societal) • IR phenomenon as a systems cross-section: material flows for production, waste management and poverty alleviation • Possibilities for win-win solutions by inclusion / integration? • Key challenges to be addressed • Need for systemic view and high-level evaluation and interpretation of accumulating evidence on interventions Example of financial contribution - Mumbai Cross-subsidy - from poor to rich • This budget to deals with ~ 75-80% of the waste generated • ~20-25% of the waste is collected & recycled by informal sector • Informal sector is saving city ~ US$100 million/year in avoided collection & disposal costs Budget of SWM Department 2009/10 US$228 million 2010/11 US$334 million (estimate) Source: Perinaz Bhada-Tata, Waste Management World, September – October 2010 A detailed study which documents the financial contribution of the informal sector to SWM in 6 cities is available: Scheinberg, Simpson M.H. and Gupt Y. (2010). Economic Aspects of the Informal Sector in Solid Waste. German Technical Cooperation (GTZ, re-named GIZ in 2011), Eschborn, Germany. www.giz.de Source: Ranjith Annepu, http://swmindia.blogspot.com/ ISWA Beacon Conference Waste Prevention and Recycling Buenos Aires 21-22 June 2011 Contribution of community / informal sector • Systems entirely private sector – financed only from sale of recyclates • Modern recycling systems have been rebuilt by municipalities as ‘sinks’ – cost them money but cheaper than landfill or waste-to- energy • Reduce public sector costs – by millions of $/year in a large city • Professional waste workers in the community / informal sector are just one partner group, but they are often not recognised as such by the municipality • Build recycling rates • Save the city money • Availability of secondary raw materials for industry • Move towards zero waste • Improve livelihoods • Sustain employment • Improve working conditions Major opportunity for win-win solutions through partnership Itinerant waste buyer Integrating the community / informal sector into sustainable WM • Secure livelihoods  Find new niches, e.g. in separate collection and recycling  Assure access at transfer stations (and/or landfill sites?)  Increase market leverage –e.g. co - operatives, diversification • Open channels of communication with the city • Address social and health & safety issues

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Informal sector and recycling

Informal sector and recycling – global experiencesKey steps towards effective inclusion in 21st century SWM systems

Conferencia ISWA Beacon sobre Minimización y Reciclado de ResiduosISWA Beacon Conference on Waste Prevention and Recycling

21-22 June - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Costas Velis, David C WilsonEnvironmental and Water Resource EngineeringDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering Imperial College LondonISWA Globalization and Waste Management Task Force

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Who do I thank DCW PPP heavily based on his previous work- enriched with mine (but me responsible for what you have heard here tonight) My 2 hats: ICL and ISWA GWM TF Hope to give you a new, refreshing perspective to a controversial, but in any case, extremely important issue
Page 2: Informal sector and recycling

Photo credits: © City of Rotterdam; Kossara Bozhilova-Kisheva; Bhushan Tuladhar

Diverse approaches to separate collection for recycling

Kerbside sort in RotterdamBring bins in

Varna, BulgariaExchanging recyclables for

onions Siddhipur, Nepal

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Add photo of London if found on internet with cardboardson hte kebrbside and low-teck no compaction vehicled for co-mingled dry recyclates
Page 3: Informal sector and recycling

Key themes

• Informal recycling: a reality in (environmentally) developing countries

• Western-world recycling modes: an evolving selection of options• Evidence on key aspects of informal recycling (financial - mainly,

environmental, societal)• IR phenomenon as a systems cross-section: material flows for

production, waste management and poverty alleviation• Possibilities for win-win solutions by inclusion / integration?• Key challenges to be addressed • Need for systemic view and high-level evaluation and

interpretation of accumulating evidence on interventions• ISWA GWM TF Workshop

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Page 4: Informal sector and recycling

Collection

Photo credits clockwise from top left: © WASTE; Erica Trauba; Justin Lang, Zero Waste South Australia; Curepipe Municipality; Ljiljana Rodic

Some examples of diversity in

service provision

Door‐to‐door informal collector, India

Curepipe, Mauritius Adelaide, AustraliaBicycle cart delivering to small 

transfer station in Kunming 

CBO collection in Bamako, Mali

Does modernisation necessarily mean motorisation and compaction?

Page 5: Informal sector and recycling

How many professional waste workers in the community / informal sector?

City % of total population

Bengaluru 0.5Belo Horizonte <0.05

Canete 0.4Delhi 1.3

Dhaka 1.7Ghorahi 0.1Lusaka <0.05

Managua 0.3Quezon City 0.5

Sousse 0.1Average 0.5

Total workers in 10 cities 350,000

Table data source: Scheinberg A., Wilson D.C. and Rodic L. (2010). Solid Waste Management in the World’s Cities. Published for UN- Habitat by Earthscan, London

Global estimate: ~ 15 million

Source: 2010 World Congress of Waste Pickers

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Evidence please!! The average corrects the long circulated possible overestimate(?) value of 2% Dr Martin Medina’s estimate
Page 6: Informal sector and recycling

Recycling rates: formal vs. informal

Income Level

Average%

Formal%

Informal%

High 54 54 0

Upper- middle 15 1 15

Lower- middle 27 11 16

Low 27 1 26

Data source: Scheinberg A, Wilson D.C. and Rodic L. (2010). Solid Waste Management in the World’s Cities. Published for UN-Habitat by Earthscan, London

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Only in the highest income cities IS does not play a key role in recycling Upper middle absence of formall – possibly due to small statistical sample (not representative?) And yes, the high income level achieved higher recycling rated (but at what cost)
Page 7: Informal sector and recycling

Financial sustainability - affordability

Income LevelCity SWbudget

per capita

City SW budget per capita as % of

GDP per capita

Range Average

High $75 0.03 - 0.40% 0.17%

Upper-middle $33 0.14 - 1.19% 0.59%Lower-middle $10 0.40 - 1.22% 0.69%

Low* $1.4 0.14 – 0.52% 0.32%

Data source: Scheinberg A, Wilson D.C. and Rodic L. (2010).

• Affordability is a key issue in the lower income countries • Fees < 1-2% of household income• * Data only available for 3 of the 6 low-income cities (for 16 out of 20 cities in total)

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
What about externalities (environmental – social -0 pubic health?)
Page 8: Informal sector and recycling

Example of financial contribution - Mumbai

Cross-subsidy - from poor to rich• This budget to deals with ~ 75-80%

of the waste generated• ~20-25% of the waste is collected &

recycled by informal sector• Informal sector is saving city ~

US$100 million/year in avoided collection & disposal costs

Budget of SWM Department2009/10 US$228 million2010/11 US$334 million

(estimate)

Source: Perinaz Bhada-Tata, Waste Management World, September – October 2010

A detailed study which documents the financial contribution of the informal sector to SWM in 6 cities is available: Scheinberg, Simpson M.H. and Gupt Y. (2010). Economic Aspects of the Informal Sector in Solid Waste. German Technical Cooperation (GTZ, re-named GIZ in 2011), Eschborn, Germany. www.giz.de

Source: Ranjith Annepu, http://swmindia.blogspot.com/

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Could modern-western system recycle the same or more? – Yes, it definitely can – at what cost thought (affordability issue- have a slide available just incase)
Page 9: Informal sector and recycling

Contribution of community / informal sector

• Systems entirely private sector – financed only from sale of recyclates

• Modern recycling systems have been rebuilt by municipalities as ‘sinks’ – cost them money but cheaper than landfill or waste-to- energy

• Reduce public sector costs – by millions of $/year in a large city

• Professional waste workers in the community / informal sector are just one partner group, but they are often not recognised as such by the municipality Port Harcourt, 2006 (Photo: Kaine Chinwah, IC)

Istanbul, 1993  (Photo: DCW)

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Top photo: Recyclables on a dump site in Istanbul, June 1993. Bottom photo: Sorted bottles ready to be packaged by middleman, Port Harcourt
Page 10: Informal sector and recycling

A waste management and material chain flow system

Both formal and informal actors are parts of 2 key entangled systems:

1. Waste management

2. Secondary raw materials production and use

Diagram credit: Velis C and 

Wang H, 2010 

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Waste to resource management – what do we mean? The ctivities of t inforam recyclers ultimately depend on the downstream needs and financial attractiveness of the
Page 11: Informal sector and recycling

• Build recycling rates• Save the city money• Availability of secondary raw

materials for industry• Move towards zero waste• Improve livelihoods• Sustain employment• Improve working conditions

Major opportunity for win-win solutions through partnership

Itinerant waste buyer in Brazil

Sorting recycled plastics in Delhi

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Photo credits: © Jeroen Ijgosse, Enrico Fabian

Page 12: Informal sector and recycling

Integrating the community / informal sector into sustainable WM

• Secure livelihoodsFind new niches, e.g. in separate collection

and recyclingAssure access at transfer stations (and/or

landfill sites?)Increase market leverage – e.g. co -

operatives, diversification• Open channels of communication with the city• Address social and health & safety issues

Photos: Bhushan Tuladhar, Martin Medina

Itinerant waste buyer in Nepal

Recycling co-operative in Colombia

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Top photo: A scavenger co-operative in Colombia collecting source-separated materials using horsecart . Source:Scavenging and Integrated Biosystems: Some Past and Present Examples, Martin Medina. In Integrated Bio-Systems in Zero Emissions Applications, Proceedings of the Internet Conference on Integrated Bio-Systems, Editors: Eng-Leong Foo & Tarcisio Della Senta. 1998. http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs Bottom photo: Pakistan, July 2007. Itinerant waste buyer with a four wheel cart is in a medium town of Pakistan – Sukkur. (Repeat photo)
Page 13: Informal sector and recycling

Does it ever really work?

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Year Total IWBs1997 6% 4%2006 25% 16%2009 37% 24%

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Case 1: Quezon City, Philippines: NGO-led ‘Linis Ganda’• Sharp increase in recycling• Linkages across supply chain• Recognition & respectability, uniforms, ID, access• Politically connected, Organised in co-operatives• Facilitate affordable credit

Brazil: Profession recognition

Recycling facility of one of the waste picker cooperatives in Belo Horizonte

Unsold food from shops which would otherwise be discarded as waste, being sorted prior to distribution to some 15 000 people registered with the social inclusion food bank in Belo Horizonte

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Case 2: Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Will not dwell as it will be covered in detail (international and Latin America cases) by my colleagues after me DcW: FYI, the %s here for Metro Manila in each year are by coincidence almost identical to the averages for recycling in England in the same years
Page 14: Informal sector and recycling

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

The way forward - loads of challenges, for many stakeholders

• Often appalling working conditions (child labour occupational H&S risks, sorting at home, sorting WEEE, burning waste, sorting on dumpsites, etc.)

• Public health risks (e.g. re-use of syringes)• Unsightly – aesthetically incompatible with 21st century SWM• Black market: non-taxed activities – financial exploitation by material dealers(?)• Political repression, neglectance, collusion, lack of role and job recognition• Social exclusion (?) – poverty (e.g. slums on dumpsites) – access to services• Criminality (gangs formation and fighting over access to material)• Littering / dumping / obstructing formal sector activities (e.g. landfill working front)• Collection focus depends upon volatile secondary raw material market prices• Lack of co-operation with authorities, lack of organisation that could allow

accountability, legal and environmental control• Intervention / inclusion / absorption supportive attempts failing due to lack of

system understanding (primarily a waste/material flow issue not a means to social engineering)

• Interventions financially unsustainable and lacking in capacity building• Financial externalities (material flows, greenhouse gas emissions, H&S)

Presenter
Presentation Notes
And here expressing own private views Focus on some unclear, misunderstood, neglected aspects (in red)
Page 15: Informal sector and recycling

‘Working conditions are unacceptable’ - ‘risk to public health’

• Yes, but why are their working conditions so dirty?• Most sorting is in mixed waste• (Hand sorting with suitable PPE is not uncommon in high income countries)• Key: access to materials under controlled safe hygienic conditions• Key: separate organics from dry recyclables at source• At a stroke, improve working conditions for the recyclers AND provide the

foundation for ‘zero waste’ to landfill• Separation at source already takes place – itinerant waste buyers (IWBs)

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ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Delhi, India: mixed waste handling Lichfield ‘dirty’ MRF, UKSiddhipur, Nepal: exchanging food

for waste

Page 16: Informal sector and recycling

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Financial and organisational sustainability

• People are willing to pay – when they can see the benefits (e.g., for primary collection, to improve the living conditions of their children)

• Funds for investment• Potential partners to municipalities

» National government» Development grants» International agency loans» Private investment

• Most partners only provide capital costs• Municipality still needs to be able to afford the

operating costs• Novel funding mechanisms

• CDM - Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism • EPR - Extended Producer Responsibility

Payatas landfill gas recovery plant, Quezon City

(Photo: SWAPP)

Tunisia

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Issue with collection of fees in the low income countries Kyoto CDM: applies to landfill gas and then centralised composting but difficult) too beurocratic for informal / community sector
Page 17: Informal sector and recycling

Good governance & partnerships: key to success

Partnerships underpin all the UN-Habitat (SWM in world’s

cities)governance factors

Municipalities cannot solve the SWM problem alone

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Key to successful implementation of any improvement plan to SWM UN-habitat work established/proposed a series of good governance indicators
Page 18: Informal sector and recycling

‘If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it’

E.g. always weigh waste

Kunming – weighbridge at incinerator

Analyse waste composition

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GIZ project in Mozambique

Need robust evidence base for decision-makingNeed reliable and timely data

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Page 19: Informal sector and recycling

• Globalisation and Waste Management (GWM) ISWA Task Force

• 1st deliverable out of 5 is on informal recycling sector• Consolidate evidence from existing inclusion/integration interventions• MSc thesis - Imperial College London (Ms Ondina Rocca)• International Expert Workshop (Buenos Aires 22-23 June 2011)

• Terminology: alternatives to “informal sector”• Vision: Inclusion / integration / absorption• Important and/or typical case studies on ‘integration’ attempts• Intervention / self-organisation typology• Success / failure – constraints and facilitating factors• Template for typical intervention case studies presentation• Decision making framework – good practice guide: useful existing

approaches - propose new ways to frame the choices

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Systematic approach to inclusion/integration solutions

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Workshop agenda / ISWA GWM TF Thank ARS for hosting us
Page 20: Informal sector and recycling

A w/p case: how should we refer to the ‘informal’ sector?

• Recognising that language forms perceptions and reflects stances

• Development agencies do not like the ‘informal sector’ – synonymous with the ‘black economy’ – tax revenues are necessary for good governance

• The ‘informal’ sector in WM need not be outside the formal economy – e.g. Brazil

• But they do not want to be ‘formalised’ in the sense of being ‘absorbed’ – separate stakeholder group

• I have used here : ‘community/ informal sector’• What term should we be using? Would another term

make recognition and integration easier?

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Page 21: Informal sector and recycling

The community sector (CBOs) in SWM in high income countries

• Surprisingly large and active

• Often focus on reuse

• ...but also recycling and

community composting

• Complain that they are not

recognised as equal

partners by LAs and the

formal private sector

Photos: Matthew Thompson, LCRN

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Transition to next slide: now this brings us again to things that are there but we may fail to notice – not No one size fits all
Page 22: Informal sector and recycling

Collection

Photo credits clockwise from top left: © WASTE; Erica Trauba; Justin Lang, Zero Waste South Australia; Curepipe Municipality; Ljiljana Rodic

Some examples of diversity in

service provision

Door‐to‐door informal collector, India

Curepipe, Mauritius Adelaide, AustraliaBicycle cart delivering to small 

transfer station in Kunming 

CBO collection in Bamako, Mali

Modernisation does not necessarily mean motorisationMotorisation does not mean compaction (London’s example!!)

Key modernisation feature: separate, effective at source collection

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Explain that a World-leading on EfW company (Veolia) is implementing relatively low-tech waste collection of comingled dry recyclables in London – why? It is fit-for purpose.... “from my window in a gross south London neibourhood”...
Page 23: Informal sector and recycling

Success factors

• No one size fits all – every city needs to develop its own local and sustainable fit-for-purpose solution

• Technical ambitions may need to be modified to achieve affordability: e.g. a sanitary landfill is worth nothing if it the city can’t afford to run it

• Commitment does more than money: several poor cities with good systems

• Building on what you have works• Including informal activities in formal reporting could

improve a city's outlook

One size does not fit all –

large and small composting 

plants in Adelaide and 

Canete, Peru

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Page 24: Informal sector and recycling

ISWA Beacon ConferenceWaste Prevention and RecyclingBuenos Aires 21-22 June 2011

Thank you!

[email protected]

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Keep an o Open eye for the results of the workshop and further actions within this delivery area of the ISWM GWM TG Thank BA, ARS, praise importance of their relevant experience with “IRS”, can be leading on global scale Put all event supporters logos here