Cappa, Andrés, Ariel Bertellotti, Mariano Murad, Julieta Campana, Paula Basílico and Florian Juergens-Grant. 2023. Efforts of Argentina’s Informal Waste Pickers to Finance Decent Work and Social Protection through Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation. WIEGO Resource Document No. 34.
Based on the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, organizations of informal waste pickers in Argentina have drafted a law that seeks to address both environmental challenges related to the generation of inorganic waste and the lack of labour rights of workers in Argentina’s current waste management practices.
Argentina’s draft Packaging Bill requires packaging-producing companies to directly contribute to the financing of inclusive recycling systems, which should ensure improved working conditions and access to some social protections for informal waste pickers.
The principle of packaging-producing companies directly financing improved working conditions and social protection for self-employed informal waste pickers can set an important precedent in the recognition of firms’ responsibility to ensure decent working conditions and social protection for workers in their value chain, even in the absence of formal employment relationships.