Meet focuses on sharing of collection models in different nations

 Apr 30, 2012
Source: Timesofindia

PUNE: Waste pickers gathered in Pune for the 1st Global Strategic Workshop of Waste Pickers focused on sharing models of waste picking in different countries and spoke of challenges similar to all participants. The workshop that kickstarted at Yashada on April 27 will conclude on Monday.
Waste pickers from Africa (Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Benin, Madagascar, Cameroon), Latin America (Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Colombia), and Asia (India, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia)

Michael Badrous, a member of Spirit of Youth waste pickers' association - a newly formed waste pickers' union in Cairo, Egypt, shared the challenges the Zabaleen community has faced since multinational companies made a contract with the government and then did not do the work.
"The waste pickers' union is suing the company to cancel all contracts with foreign companies. The union was formed only this year but has since accumulated 3,000 members, and is fighting hard against privatisation," Badrous said.
Simon Mbata, a waste picker and organiser from the South African Waste Pickers Association, noted a similarity between participants' waste picking models. "However, when it comes to selling the material, we mostly rely on the middlemen in our country," he said.
But in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a waste pickers' network opened a plastic factory a few years ago, getting closer to closing the production loop. "We buy plastics from waste picker cooperatives and melt the material down into pellets," said a representative.
In Kacak, Serbia, waste pickers are beginning the first functional waste pickers' cooperative in the country. The municipal government and national government is supporting the process, providing equipment, space for the cooperative and help with management and bookkeeping.
"Pune's waste pickers have shown that they can integrate citizens' participation by collecting service fee from people for door-to-door services rendered to them. Because of this, the SwaCH initiative for door-to-door collection is a doable and sustainable model," Malati Gadgil, CEO of SwaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling), a cooperative of waste pickers for door-to-door collection of waste in Pune.