Waste and Sanitation in India
Waste Pickers: India's Hidden Recyclers
How millions of informal waste pickers collect and sort recyclables, the economic value they create, and efforts to integrate them into formal systems.
Much of India’s recycling is done not by machines but by waste pickers: informal workers who collect, sort and sell recyclable materials.
Who they are
Estimates suggest lakhs to millions of people work as waste pickers in India, many of them women, children in some cases, and from marginalised communities.
What they do
- Collect plastic, paper, metal and glass from streets, bins and dumps.
- Sort materials by type.
- Sell to scrap dealers (kabadiwalas), who sell to larger traders and recyclers.
Economic value
Waste pickers:
- Recover materials that would otherwise go to landfills.
- Save cities money on collection and disposal.
- Supply raw materials to recycling industries.
Studies have estimated that informal recycling significantly reduces municipal waste costs.
Hardships
- Low and unstable incomes.
- Health risks from sharp objects, toxins and infections.
- Stigma and harassment.
- Displacement when cities privatise waste collection without including them.
Integration
- Pune’s SWaCH, a cooperative of waste pickers formed in 2007, contracts with the city for door-to-door collection, giving members steady income and dignity.
- The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 called for integrating waste pickers into formal systems.
- Some cities issue ID cards and provide health insurance.
A waste picker in Pune joins the SWaCH cooperative. Instead of scavenging dumps, she collects segregated waste door to door, earns user fees plus recyclables income and receives health cover.
Informal waste pickers and scrap dealers do much of the collection and sorting.
- Informal waste pickers collect and sort much of India's recyclables.
- They save cities money and supply recycling industries.
- They face low incomes, health risks and stigma.
- Pune's SWaCH cooperative shows how to integrate them.
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