ABSTRACT
Waste pickers are not passively assisting the innumerous injustices committed against their category and a social movement is building up in many parts of the world, with waste pickers resisting and fighting for democracy and better working conditions. This chapter highlights persisting challenges such as social exclusion and the exploitation of ‘informal’ recyclers, manifest in stigmatization, lack of agency, disempowerment and poverty. I will discuss processes that have built agency, facilitating the empowerment of waste pickers. The social benefits from organized recycling are manifold. The generation of work, the recovery of citizenship and the potential for human development are some of the gains examined here. The chapter underlines the necessity for policies to safeguard the social dimensions involved in solid waste management. In Brazil, the national movement of catadores has had a significant role in writing the new federal solid waste legislation, which supports partnerships between governments and recycling cooperatives in waste management. Finally, I will discuss an assessment methodology that helps qualify and quantify the social impacts of informal and organized recycling operations. This knowledge is important for the elaboration of preventive and constructive policies, in different geographical contexts.
