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As the first round of negotiations for the global plastic treaty are getting underway in Uruguay this month, a new report from the United Nations urges those at the talks not to forget the people who try to earn a living recycling plastic on the margins.
The November report, “Leaving No One Behind,” from UN Habitat estimates that 2 billion people around the world have no access to organized waste management, and it urges a special focus on the millions globally who try to earn a living gathering recyclable materials in those conditions.
If the treaty talks ultimately lead to a much different situation for how plastics are used and to better waste management globally, the report urges a “just transition” for those informal workers laboring in recycling.
UN Habitat’s report noted that the UN Environment Assembly meeting in March — where the plastic treaty talks were launched — was the first time that the contributions of people in the informal waste and recycling sector, or IWRS, were explicitly recognized at that level.
As an example of what to do, it pointed to Penang, Malaysia, where the city gave photo identity cards to informal collection workers, or waste pickers as the report calls them, so they could access health care.
But it said the treaty has the chance to do much more.
“The ongoing discussions on an internationally binding instrument on plastic pollution provide a unique opportunity to improve the workers’ livelihoods in the IWRS,” said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, head of the UN Habitat and former mayor of Penang, in the report.
The document recommended working groups of IWRS workers and governments to discuss solutions, as well as calling out the worst practices like child labor, open burning of wastes and lack of personal protective equipment.
The report also called for stronger financial mechanisms, like a globally coordinated EPR fee or monies from a global environment fund, to provide resources to the informal workers, although the report noted that attempts to include IWRS workers in EPR plans in some countries have had challenges.
The UN report also said that given the poor state of waste collection in much of the world, it estimates that without IWRS workers, recycling would be in much worse shape. In some countries, they are responsible for up to 90 percent of plastics recycling, the UN said.
“Their work not only surfaces reusable materials but also positively contributes to public health, creates cleaner cities and saves local government resources,” the report said.
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