Related Pages listed by

Informal Economy & WIEGO
Occupational Group(s): Waste Pickers

WIEGO Briefs

WIEGO Briefs are part of our Publication Series.

Nohra Padilla Awarded Goldman Environmental Prize

Nohra Padilla, Waste picker from Colombia, Recipient of 2013 Goldman Envrionmental Award

Unfazed by powerful political opponents and a pervasive culture of violence, Nohra Padilla organized Colombia’s marginalized waste pickers into unions and made informal recyclers a legitimate part of Bogota's urban waste management.

Waste Pickers in Brazil Receive Payment for Environmental Services

by Sonia Dias, WIEGO’s Waste Specialist/Visiting Professor UFMG, Brazil

Brazil has been in the forefront of progressive legislation and public policies geared to the integration of its informal recyclers. In the last 12-15 years, Brazil has seen the enactment of laws supporting the social inclusion of these workers and the implementation of public policies designed for cooperatives and associations of informal collectors of recyclables, known as catadores.

Waste Pickers Networks

Latin American and Caribbean Waste Pickers Network (LAWPN)

The Red Latinoamericana de Recicladores (Red Lacre, or Latin American Waste Pickers Network) brings together democratic waste picker organizations – primarily national movements formed by cooperatives – from 15 countries in Latin America. The organizations work together to improve the working conditions of waste pickers and promote dialogue and exchanges between waste pickers in different countries.

Waste Wise

Waste is Everyone’s Business!

Recycling is one of the cheapest, fastest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Waste Picker Video Series: Chronicles of a Fight for Inclusion

About the Series

This series of audiovisual materials provides information about the process of inclusion of waste pickers into the waste management system in Bogota at the local level, and in Colombia at the national level. It includes short videos—with information on waste pickers' situation and their claims, as well as education materials—that WIEGO has produced to disseminate how this process of inclusion has taken place in order to reach out to every municipality in Colombia and to all waste pickers in the world interested in knowing more about this experience.