Empowering women in urban waste recycling

Women waste pickers are doing the necessary and incredible work of diverting significant tonnes of waste from landfills while creating employment for themselves. Evidence from our Zero waste project in Durban suggests that women waste pickers can support their families through waste recycling. However, these women have cited hazards associated with the work they do. Among them is coming across hazardous waste such as sharp materials and plastic contaminated by chemicals. Therefore, I wish to address the safety challenge by providing waste pickers in the Durban CBD with personal protective equipment such as gloves.

The women have taken the initiative to strategize around safety issues by targeting and negotiating access to business premises. They request material to be pre-separated, thus reducing the time they would spend sorting through mixed waste. However, in some business premises, they still need to sort through mixed waste with bare hands, which then exposes them to hazardous waste. Therefore, I anticipate embarking on a project to assist the women with protective regalia and possibly drawn carts, as some women have no access to carts but carry loads of cardboard on their bodies, further exposing them to body strains. Moreover, it reduces the volume of recyclables they could have collected, thus reducing their opportunities to make more income. Additionally, I plan to initiate a public awareness campaign to educate and encourage businesses in the CBD about waste pickers so that they can provide them with safe spaces to work and access clean and pre-separated material, thus reducing exposure to harm.

 

The project primarily benefits a group of women waste pickers who operate in the inner-city and beachfront precincts of Durban. The working conditions of waste pickers will be dignified by having access to safe spaces and protective tools to work so that they divert more waste and earn more income. The city will also benefit from an alternative and integrated service system, which includes waste pickers diverting more volumes of waste from landfills, thus saving the municipality’s waste transportation funds and landfill airspace.

In terms of difference, the project will offer physical safety to waste pickers, as they are exposed to unsafe working conditions through sorting and processing waste. Physical injuries from going through mixed waste and using razor blades and scissors that they use to remove adhesive tapes from cardboard and plastic. The women further use their hands to flatten PET bottles, which also cuts their hands. Gloves will play a significant role in protecting waste pickers from physical cuts and coming into contact with contaminated material. This intervention could improve the safety of waste pickers as they continue to sustain their livelihoods and influence sustainable waste management practices.

I plan to purchase gloves for approximately ten female waste pickers and two carts for two waste pickers. In case the funds are left over, I will seek guidance from waste pickers about their urgent needs that those funds could be able to cover. I have a network of experienced researchers who will advise me on how I can spend the award on the awareness campaign to educate surrounding businesses about waste pickers, encourage them to separate their waste, and allow waste pickers access to their business premises.